RN finds her niche at Lakeside Women’s Hospital, INTEGRIS Health
By James Coburn, staff writer
Being a nurse runs deep for Jennifer Trent. Nursing is spiritual for Trent, RN, Lakeside Women’s Hospital, INTEGRIS Health, located in Oklahoma City.
The hospital focuses on the health and well-being of every woman, from routine well-woman visits to pregnancy and childbirth, gynecological surgery, or menopausal care.
She always wanted to be a nurse, but having kids when she was young in life, she decided to wait until they were a little bit older before going back to school, Trent said.
Trent had done oil and gas accounting for about 10 years prior to nursing school. She prayed about labor and delivery and her dream began to fall in place.
She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 2015 at the University of Central Oklahoma. She researched nursing schools before choosing UCO. She was impressed with its NCLEX nursing exams.
“It was wonderful. I was so excited to go there,” Trent said. “Everybody raved about their clinicals in nursing schools, and I thought, I want to be part of that.”
She served as a labor and delivery nurse at INTEGRIS Baptist Hospital for five years before transferring to Lakeside Women’s Hospital.
“I fell in love with working with women and children. I mean it was fantastic to be able to be a part of a mom’s life when she’s welcoming her baby,” Trent said.
Having a baby can be the best day in a woman’s life, but depending on circumstances, it may also be an expectant mother’s worse day, she continued. Trent has felt blessed to support families during both of those times.
Labor and delivery will always hold a special place in her heart. Trent has floated all around Lakeside Women’s Hospital and has now broadened her experience as a surgical nurse there.
“I like anywhere I have worked, and teamwork is just crucial to how every place works within the hospital,” she said.
She admires the people who clean the rooms in-between patients, prepare the operating rooms. Without them it would be difficult to provide good patient care, she said.
Every department she has worked in is like a well-oiled machine, from labor and delivery, helping postpartum moms, med-surg patients, and surgical procedures.
“I think when I’ve been there for a birth, it always brought tears to my eyes. It doesn’t matter how many times — I always get emotional because life is precious,” Trent explained, “…It’s nice to be there for someone and encouraging them, cheering them on because some people planned for years and years and had a really difficult time conceiving. So, you don’t know what every individual person has walked through. You meet them and establish a relationship right-off-the bat and just support them any way possible.”
She recalled when a woman whose baby had passed away before arriving at the hospital, making it the fourth time it had happened.
“When someone has experienced a great deal of difficulty getting pregnant and they have repeated losses it’s crushing,” she said.
There is so much more to nursing than taking care of someone physically. It’s holding their hand, caring for the patient, and listening to what they have to say as they process some of life’s most difficult situations, Trent said.
“I was able to hold her hand and get her ready for surgery, and I was here to take care of her when she woke up,” Trent continued. “I was a stranger to her, but to be able to be there for someone — people need that — especially now in this day and age when there is so much separation. I think in this day and age with social media, human connection is craved more than you realize.”
So, listening to their stories and even crying with them is healing in some ways, she said.
Being a nurse sharing intimate realities in someone’s life when otherwise not knowing all people endure in their daily lives, makes Trent more patient. It makes her more grateful for her health and being blessed to have healthy children.
“It’s made me a more grateful person,” she said.
Lakeside Women’s Hospital delivers a lot of joy into the world. Helping mothers with their lactation is another facet at Lakeside.
Jamie Shatswell, RN, is a certified breastfeeding specialist who is about to become an international board-certified lactation consultant after further board examination in late September.
Breastfeeding is a healthy way of protecting an infant after the mother passes her antibodies to her baby. One drop of breast milk has approximately one million white blood cells.
Shatswell said evidence-based literature reveals if the mom previously had COVID, the baby would have some protection against a COVID infection. Babies are less likely to get asthma; they are less likely to get a respiratory infection, a GI infection, and weight loss. Mothers who breastfeed have a decreased risk of breast cancer and metabolic disease, Shatswell said.
Breastfeeding is a learned skill on the baby’s mother’s part, Shatswell explained.
Taking a breastfeeding class or asking a mother about her experience makes lactation easier, she added.
Lakeside Women’s Hospital offers a lactation class once a month on a Thursday evening. In October, there will also be a breastfeeding class on Saturday mornings, Shatswell said.
For any further questions about a class please contact Laurie Shofner at 405-936-1500 or visit https://lakeside-wh.com/services/labor-and-delivery/lactation-consultation
