New Year, New Venture!

Happy New Year! I can’t believe that we are at the end of the first month of 2021 already! How many of you have already broken your resolutions by now LOL? Instead of making a New Year’s resolution this year I decided to start a new venture in my nursing career.

For those of you who do not know my story, I started working with patients at the bedside as a teenager. I worked as a patient transporter and a dietary aide in the hospital. I then became a patient care tech and a home health/hospice aide. I love caring for others and truly believe that nursing is my calling!

As a nurse, I am a true advocate for my patients. I stand up for them when they are not able or afraid to do so. I help them access the healthcare resources that they need when they don’t know how. I am their shoulder to cry on, and their available ear to listen when they are lonely.

Photo Credit: Baptist Physician Partners

I have worked in a wide arena of nursing including correctional facilities, assisted living, inpatient and home hospice, OB/GYN and adult medicine medical offices and most recently tele-health due to the pandemic. Through tele-health visits I was able to touch bases with my elderly, immuno-compromised, or chronic condition patients who were instructed not to come into the office unless absolutely necessary.

I was able to coordinate their care from a distance. Let me tell you, getting my patient’s the resources that they needed to withstand this pandemic felt amazing! I fell in love with care coordination so much that I’ve moved into this as my new nursing position. Being able to follow my patients after they have had a doctor’s appointment, hospital or rehab stay and giving them the tools that they need to prevent being readmitted feels so fulfilling! This is where I need to be. Helping my patients take better care of themselves! I am doing what I was born to do!❤️

-Nurse Neesy

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March is National Kidney Month!

I remember being a tween and waiting for hours at a hospital in Virginia for both my mother and my uncle to recover from surgery. Although they did not get along or speak very often, my mother donated one of her kidneys to my uncle. What a gift! Who knew that many years later both of their kidneys would fail around the same time and I would lose them only months apart within the same year.

Hypertension and diabetes are usually correlated with chronic kidney disease, so the focus in 2020 is the management of these comorbidities. Prevention methods consist of smoking cessation, healthier eating habits, incorporating at least 30 minutes of physical exercise, and getting enough sleep. For those patients who take medication to regulate their blood pressure, it is imperative that they continue to do so in order to reduce the risk of kidney disease.

Don’t forget to support by wearing green this month and spreading kidney disease awareness to your friends, family, and co-workers!

For more information, visit:

https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/community-health-outreach/national-kidney-month