It’s National Nurses Week!

This week is National Nurses Week, which gives us all a chance to honor and appreciate nurses for everything they do to keep us calm in times of crisis, to help us set meaningful health goals and to improve the quality of care for everyone. To do my part to celebrate their work, I am writing profiles of each of our Clinic nurses. Today will be the first installment in this series, and Sister Kathleen is the brave soul who was willing to go first. She told me so many amazing stories, I regret I cannot present them all in their totality here.

What drew you to nursing?

“As a child I knew that I wanted to live a religious life, but after being in hospital at age seven in Ireland, that experience made me want to become a nurse (a medical missionary, really). I was at an age when I still believed in the tooth fairy, and after I lost a tooth, the nurses put a sixpence under my pillow. It was a little thing, but it affected me somehow. They were real people who had the privilege of being put into a position of alleviating the suffering of others. That struck me and stayed with me, both how they treated me and how I saw them treat others.”

What do you enjoy about working with the patients at St. Anthony Medical Clinic?

“I love the way I have a chance to get to know many of them and follow them over the years. I love to hear them call to me from across the room or the street, excited to see me. Secondly, I am thrilled and amazed at the great ethnic diversity and internationality of our patients.”

 Sr. told me about a woman who called out to her on the street, having recognized her from the Clinic. She was in a desperate state, lying on the sidewalk and vomiting on herself. Someone had already called an ambulance, so Sister Kathleen decided to stay with her until they came.

 “When the ambulance showed up I could tell that my presence made a difference in how they treated her. One of them was visibly reluctant and pulling away from her, but I think seeing a nun with her contextualized the situation and served as a reminder of how she should be treated, that she should be treated with dignity and respect.”

 Sister Kathleen’s presence reminded the EMT workers of this woman’s humanity .

“It’s a tremendous privilege to be with someone when they are suffering and desperate like that, to offer comfort when they might feel the most alone. I take great comfort in doing my small piece interrupting the cycle of poverty, and it gives me a great sense of connection, even little things like making eye contact, saying hello.”

How has nursing impacted your life and how do you hope to impact the lives of others?

“Next to becoming a Vowed member of a religious community, it has had the most impact of any choice I have made in my life. Nursing has brought me to England, Ireland, Wales, El Salvador, and Zambia as well as Sacramento, Oakland and San Francisco. It has opened my eyes to the human condition and given me a privileged place during important life experiences of people.”

I asked her for an example of such an experience that stands out. She told me about a woman in Zambia who suffered terrible complications during childbirth; her uterus had ruptured and the child died. After learning that the woman also had AIDS, they did not expect her to survive the incredible strain the whole ordeal put on her body. Sister Kathleen wanted to do whatever she could for this woman to give her peace and comfort. The woman asked only to see her children, but as they lived 90 km away Sister had to quickly arrange for use of the ambulance and the assistance of some volunteer nurses.

Not expecting her to survive the trip, but eager to address her last wish, they drove the woman 90 km in the ambulance to her home. Amazingly she made it in time to see her children, and, having been a schoolteacher, she insisted on inspecting their workbooks. More amazingly, she didn’t die. She recovered, and Sister Kathleen would periodically receive reports of her progress from the other women who came to the maternity hospital. One day the woman appeared with a huge sack on her head, and said, “Sister, I’ve brought you Irish potatoes!” She seemed entirely healed. I asked Sister what this story meant to her.

 “I had always thought of my work in a very procedural way. I was always doing something: I was drawing blood, or removing stitches, or dressing a wound. In this instance this woman was healed not by something medical I could do for her, but by being with her and by ensuring the presence of other caring people, by being with her loved ones.”

Sister Kathleen also explained how this has informed her work at St. Anthony Medical Clinic, and has been something she has returned to again and again.

 “So many of our patients have endured horrible hardships and although they are maybe past the most dramatic parts of that journey, they still face incredible loneliness and isolation. For many of them the Clinic is a place they can come to and return to for assistance, for camaraderie or just a familiar and friendly face. People don’t often think of it this way, but loneliness can have incredibly negative impacts on people’s health.”

Sister Kathleen particularly emphasized that she enjoys being part of a team, and working with the patient to improve all aspects of the patient’s health. We are all incredibly fortunate to be able to count generous, thoughtful people like Sister Kathleen as part of our team.