Nurses: Many Roles One Profession

Arizona Nurse,  May 2005  

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AzNA Salutes Nurses During Nurses Week

Each year in the May issue AzNA highlights members and their professional careers. Throughout this issue there are articles from members in various nursing roles.

Mary Sullivan, RN, has been working in the Veterans Healthcare Administration for approximately 20 years. Most of her clinical experience has been in psychiatric mental health nursing services. Since 1994, she has managed collateral duties as a clinical forensic nurse. Mary was the first in the VA system to coordinate a fully trained forensic nurse examiner team at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in 1997. As the specialty continued to develop and influence her practice, she has incorporated aspects from the sexual assault and death investigation sub-specialties to explore how these vitally important skills sets may be applied to live patient care situations. At this time, these collateral duties involve consulting and teaching at local and national levels within VHA on forensic nursing and it application to patient care delivery.

She is responsible for the VHA forensic nursing initiative currently in progress and is chairing a workgroup made up of selected VA nurses with forensic nursing background. Together they will outline and define responsibilities of forensically prepared registered nurses in the hospital setting and submit these recommendations to the National Nursing Executive Council, Office of Nursing Services at VA Headquarters. Mary's goal is to develop a model of patient care delivery and evaluation of that care in which nurses may routinely utilize forensically oriented knowledge, skills and abilities in recognizing and managing medicolegal significance on any patient at any time.

Mary was recognized with the VHA secretary's Award for Nursing Excellence 2003, The Creighton University School of Nursing Alumni Merit Award 2004, and the IAFN Virginia Lynch Pioneer Award in 2004.

Since retiring Grace Peterson, RN, MSN, has continued her affiliations with AzNA/ANA and Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) and she has joined the Sun City West Nurses Club (SCWNC) where she is the First Vice President. During this time she has shared her WWII Army experiences with groups, has attended AzNA events and served as the treasurer for the Beta Upsilon chapter of STTI for three terms of two years each.

Grace has taken part in educational programs offered by Sun Health and encourages others to continue their education, in part by making contributions to the Mesa Boswell School of Nursing and to the Arizona Nurses Foundation. She has also donated WWII artifacts to the American Museum of Nursing. Grace attended the Promise of Nursing and plans to attend AzNA's Biennial Convention in Tucson.

Grace comments, "By doing such things my curiosity is appeased, I continue to learn, to marvel at all that is going on in our profession, and continue to be one of it's proud members since my graduation over 60 years ago."

Karen Reuter, RN, MS, AzSNC, thinks we all have chosen nursing as our profession and career to be "about life" either in the beginning, middle or end of the human experience. The specialty of school nursing is about practicing community health nursing in a school setting. Karen came to school nursing partially out of frustration after working with patients with serious chronic illnesses who were not engaged in their health care and didn't subscribe to wellness behaviors. Armed with strong clinical nursing skills, Karen thought that she could make a greater impact through working in a setting where she had a captive audience of children who were developing their health behaviors. "I have never regretted my decision and have worked with students in the elementary, middle and high school populations. In the school setting, I have the ability and am challenged to use all facets of my BSN/MS education, applying it to individuals as well as groups. I engage in program development, grant writing and health and wellness activities as well as assessing and providing interventions for individual student's health care needs-physical as well as psych-mental health" Karen commented.

The students of today continue to experience the same developmental stages that students of thirty years ago experienced. However, the changes in how we define "family" today and advances in technology, e.g. TV, computers, cell phones, have altered how our children are influenced and what the priorities are for many of them. Maslow's hierarchy of need still prevails. Can I think of any other place I'd rather be? Absolutely not. The autonomy, the application of creativity, the ability to make a difference with groups of students as well as individual students, to make a difference with families and school faculty/staff has made this a very rewarding specialty of nursing for me.

Mary Herring, RN, MSN, COHN-S, began practicing hypnosis in 1998. In her hypnotherapy practice, she utilizes her 35 years of nursing experience in a variety of specialties, combined with her interest in integrative therapies to provide direct client care. Herring frequently assists clients in preparing for surgery, managing pain, modifying unhealthy habits and overcoming performance issues.