McBride Orthopedic Hospital Nurse Shines
Kelly Colvin, RN
A Life Changed by Nursing, Built on Loyalty, Love, and Laughter
story by James Coburn, Staff Writer
Having loyalty to a company is a hallmark of Kelly Colvin, a registered nurse at McBride Orthopedic Hospital in Oklahoma City. She serves as the pre-op, PACU, and post-op charge nurse there.
“In my nursing career of 23 years I’ve had two jobs,” said Colvin, who is in her 16th year at McBride.
Loving your coworkers makes everything fall in place, she continued. Her career exposed her to a wide range of care, including orthopedic neurology and working at the Dean McGee Eye Surgery Center for 10 years on her days off from McBride.
Colvin spent the first year of her nursing career as a licensed practical nurse in 2003 after graduating from Joliet Junior College in Illinois. She’s been with McBride Orthopedic Hospital for 16 years.
Colvin did her final clinical rotation on an orthopedic floor of a Joliet hospital where her sister was a nurse. She fell in love with orthopedic nursing and got a job at the Joliet hospital after earning her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing in Illinois.
The nursing population is aging, so it’s important to mentor people who want to become nurses, she said. Colvin loves nursing students doing rotations. Being a hands-on person, she learned more by doing than from books, she said.
Nurses should be able to learn and think independently, Colvin noted. Because if she is not present, she wants them to be able to do it.
“I want them to know it. I want the physicians to look at everybody and say, ‘They know their stuff.’ Not where’s Kelly?’” Colvin said.
Her drive to become a nurse came at ages 12-13 when Colvin moved in with her grandmother when she was in failing health.
“She had a tracheostomy and I remember her home health nurse let me help. She taught me how to suction and clean her trach – just simple little tasks like doing blood sugars,” Colvin said.
Nursing has been a positive force in Colvin’s life. She often tells herself, “I am who I am because of my career.” And today there is plenty for Colvin to love about McBride.
“I love the people I work with, the physicians I work with. It’s a family,” she said. “You spend more time here than you do with your family 90 percent of the time. And I think the flow here with the people you work with is what makes it. There’s quite a few of us who have longevity. We’re all in the same mindset that you don’t chase money. You work a career that you love. And I feel that McBride is a great place to work and a great place to learn.”
Colvin said nobody wants their coworkers to be left behind. McBride is a place where nurses choose to stay beyond their shift to help their coworkers when they become busy
“Every day in any aspect, we go above and beyond for our patients,” Colvin explained. “We all pull together and just keep on going.”
She described herself as the type of nurse she would want to care for herself if she was hospitalized. Whether it be just a smile or a kind word, Colvin wants to laugh before patients go into surgery because they’re nervous. Being nervous is normal, she reassures her patients.
“I think laughter is great,” she said. “I’m known as the jokester around here by everybody. I joke because it makes a hard day easier. I laugh because it makes the day go by.”
Patient care is what a nurse puts into it. One must give nursing their undivided attention for the good of the patient, she said.
She recalls a back-to-back day of four surgeries when a high-profile patient came to McBride. The patient was in a lot of pain and uncomfortable.
“I used my kindest words, my kindest voice and smiled,” Colvin said
She told him they needed to move him, but they would do it at his speed. The operating room was ready, but he would be moved when he was ready.
Last year a family member approached her at Whole Foods and asked if she worked at McBride. Colvin answered yes.
“I thought that was you, and you were the best nurse ever,” the woman said.
Colvin said she doesn’t need praise, but that conversation was more of a thank you than anything.
When Colvin returns home from McBride, she leaves her workday behind to be with her 13-year-old daughter, two teenage stepsons and her husband. But she recalls her day to make sure every chartered detail was done.
For more information about McBride Orthopedic Hospital
visit https://mcboh.com or call 405-230-9000
