JOY OF NURSING – RN IS GRATEFUL TO BE A NURSE
story and photo by James Coburn, Staff Writer
A nurse shouldn’t fear what they might see when thinking of wounds, said Cecilia Hill, RN, SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital – Midwest.
“That’s going to be some open skin that can be anywhere on the body,” Hill said. “There are different stages of deterioration, and you can’t be afraid of that. You can’t be afraid to talk to people because there’s a lot of teaching that goes into that.”
As the RN case manager, she serves in the outpatient wound care clinic of the Midwest City hospital. She is also trained on patient intake and discharge. (story continues below)
The fast-paced environment working alongside a physician. When the doctor leaves the patient, she educates patients about dressing their wounds and explains the use of different bandages, medicines, and ointments when they return home.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or HBOT, may be used to speed up healing of gangrene, difficult wounds, and infections. Another nurse is trained to use the HBOT which has a high success rate of wound healing, Hill said.
The clinical staff includes an intake RN for taking vitals, undressing the wound, cleaning it, taking photos, measuring the wound and preparing the patient to see a physician. A case manager RN accompanies the physician seeing the patient. The case manager will chart the progression of treatment, and the effectiveness of prescribed medication. Any changes will be documented by the RN case manager and order supplies for the patients as well as home health when needed. A discharge RN will photograph the wound and give further instructions. Once that’s done the case manager will follow-up on anything the patient needs, Hill said.
All the nurses have specific responsibilities but are trained to be flexible to move around for whatever is needed when a lot of patients enter the clinic for treatment.
“What I like about it is we don’t have to ask each other. We just see that it needs to be done and we get it done,” Hill continued. “It is a great team and when we see patients come in, we know them by name because we see them weekly.”
The nurses are a joy to be with, she said. They take their lunch together when the patients have left for the day.
Most of Hill’s patients are in pain and the pain is sometimes heightened by comorbidities such as diabetes-induced neuropathy that is painful on its own.
Most patients who are in pain must have their own pain management physician who is separate from the clinic. One lady came in with wounds.
“What impressed me is she was elderly, but she was still smiling,” Hill said. “I asked her, ‘What makes you still go?’ And she told me, ‘You just take it one day at a time.’ To me it says you can’t stress out. You do have to take it one day at a time.”
Such remembrance inspires Hill to move forward in a nursing field with love. She traces her inspiration back to being a 2-year-old watching her auntie who was a nurse go to work.
“She lived across the street from a nursing home. She always wore pretty white dresses, white stockings, white shoes, and a white hat,” Hill said. “I’d say, ‘Hey, can I go to work with you?’ And she’d take me and my sisters to work with her.”
Hill loved how natural her auntie would talk with her patients. She would always buy her niece nursing items for Christmas.
“I just always wanted to be a nurse ever since then,” Hill said. “That never changed.”
Hill was born and raised in Oklahoma but moved to California at 19 where she graduated from nursing school at County USC Medical Center in Los Angeles. Her nursing career has involved med/surg and became one of the first nurses to open an HIV ward. Additionally, she has served in a OBGYN emergency room, labor and delivery, and worked as a midwife.
Hill said she couldn’t find a job in labor and delivery when she returned to Oklahoma 17 years ago. But she felt God leading her into psychiatric nursing before she transferred to SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital – Midwest in 2021. Hill has worked in wound care ever since.
“Transitioning from psych to wounds in SSM Health has been a beautiful experience for me,” she said.
Her work keeps her moving but her life makes a smooth transition when returning home.
At home she does deep breathing and relaxes for 15 minutes. She has eight children; the eldest will graduate from high school this senior year.
Every morning she says a prayer thanking God for waking her up.
“I always ask guidance to walk in His light,” she said. “When I come home that’s what I ask. When I leave, I thank him for that day. And when I’m home, I thank him for allowing me to be home.”
For more information or to join the team at SSM HEALTH-Midwest City visit CLICK HERE.
