May 6-12 is National Nurses Week, and there is a common familial theme running through the storylines of some of the nurses working at the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital.
Their inspirations included family members, such as grandparents who lived through WWII, or a grandmother who was in the healthcare field for many years.
Today, they are carrying the torch as the younger generation and through one of the biggest challenges in recent history, the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stephanie Mallonee is a geriatric nurse who works with Eckerd Living Center, and she said she was inspired by her grandmother, who was a caregiver.
“She had gone to nursing school, but before she graduated during WWII, my grandfather came home and they got married, they did the whole family thing,” Mallonee said. “But she was always a caregiver for everybody for like the neighborhood, the elders in the neighborhood, or anyone that was hurt or sick, people at church, family. For a time, we lived with my grandparents. I would go with her when she would go and take care of different family members and friends. It was just a way of expressing love.”
Although the hospital did not get the bulk of the COVID-19 patients, Mallonee said the lockdown was hard for all the families, residents, and staff at the hospital.
“It was hard, but we worked our tails off to take care of those residents and to keep them safe,” Mallonee said. “We worked together. It’s funny because when you get a lot of nurses together, we complain. When I say nurses, I mean nurses’ aides, and we’re complainers by nature. But there wasn’t a single complaint by nature. Everyone just came together, and we just did what had to do.”
She said finding a career within the healthcare field was what she naturally gravitated toward, becoming a CNA first and then going to nursing school to become a nurse. She’s been with Highlands-Cashiers Hospital for almost 20 years.
Mallonee said her favorite part of the job is the people and she said being a geriatric nurse is her calling.
“I just love the idea that I make their lives better, even with the little things that we do with my elders,” Mallonee said. “They’ve lived their lives, they’ve worked hard all their lives, and they deserve someone to care for them with respect, dignity, and compassion and to validate their lives and to let them know they’re still important.”
For Kimberly Townsend, a clinical nurse coordinator in the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital’s ER, her inspiration for getting into healthcare was also her grandmother, who was a certified nursing assistant for 50 years until she turned 75 about two and a half years ago.
“That was a lot of it, and I was a CNA for a while before I decided to go to med school,” Townsend said. “Started out at med school, and then I decided I’d rather be a nurse and be at the bedside more.”
She was a CNA for five years before she finished nursing school in 2019 and came back to HCH right when the pandemic began.
“When that hit, it was definitely different,” Townsend said. “Being a smaller, critical access hospital, we definitely don’t see the volume [of patients] that the other hospitals that I was working at for my first two years saw. Here it was different because people were just so thankful that we were here willing to take care of them. Other places, it was just chaos with COVID and everything. It was very nice being able to come back here and see people in my community and not have to feel the pressure as much of COVID because we didn’t have to.”
There is a national healthcare workers shortage, and Townsend offered some advice to people wanting to get started in the field.
“I think if anything, to get your foot in the door,” Townsend said. “I know here we have the program where it’s eight to 12 weeks where they come here and they get their CNA, and then you end up taking the test. You get your foot in the door. If you’ve already got that licensure or certification, depending on which one you’ve got under your belt, then you can go on and say, ‘do you really like it, do you not?’”
Getting to meet a variety of patients from different walks of life is Townsend’s favorite aspect of the job.
“You just don’t know what their lives are like and what they’ve done,” Townsend said. “I’ve met war vets; I’ve met people that have patents and have made millions, and I’ve met people that own a coffee shop and they’re like the greatest people ever.”
There is some hesitancy after COVID of people not wanting to go into the field, Townsend said, because there is always the question of what if another pandemic occurs.
“There was a mass exodus of nurses, so we’re already feeling the strain of that,” Townsend said. “We’ll obviously encourage people to come in, and we want to show a good example and that we love our job. But there’s also the downside of it, that people are also scared to get into this field just because you are available to any crisis or anything that comes. There’s nothing, you know, it doesn’t matter if it’s a pandemic or what you do, you’re still going to have to be there.”
Diana Shane, a nursing administration supervisor with Highlands-Cashiers Hospital who has been with the hospital since October 2022, started in the neonatal ICU because of her fascination with technology and babies. But, as the years progressed, she moved on to other fields such as open-heart surgery and pediatrics before taking a break to be a mother. She had been working in Florida since 2014 prior to coming to the Highlands-Cashiers Plateau.
“We kind of go between acute and ED and we get to wear both hats, which is what I love about this job, we have to still interact, get to be a nurse, and be right there with them during everything, and then also get to do the kind of thing I like with the little tidbits that make things better for a nurse or for a patient,” Shane said. “You get to have more exposure. When you’re the nurse, you’re taking care of your specifics for the most part, and I get to see everyone throughout the hospital every time I’m here, so it’s great.”
She said the teamwork among staff members is the best part of her job.
“I’m just floored that there’s such a cohesiveness in this unit,” Shane said. “Literally, all of us, including supervisors, tag team, all the patients make sure they have fresh water, their trenches are empty, their beds are cleaned, they’re changed, it’s just awesome. It’s not like you have your patients, and I have mine.”
Shane said she would mentor anyone who wants to get into the healthcare field and help them grow as nursing professionals. Her son just finished the hospital’s CNA class and enrolled in nursing school.
“I have a lot of resources available, and I research a lot,” Shane said. “So, I know where the schools are, and we have students that come through that are amazing. We’re picking up some that are going to be our babies and we’re going to grow them to be part of the team.”
Tracy Jernigan is a staff nurse who works at the Eckerd Center on the campus of the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital.
She was inspired by her mother, a registered nurse, to go into the healthcare field and said she had the intent to go straight into nursing school following high school.
Instead, she became a dental assistant for 15 years. She then got married and had three children. When her youngest was in first grade, she decided she would go back to college to get her RN degree.
“I always had it in the back of my head that I wanted to be an RN,” Jernigan said.
Jernigan has worked in long-term care for 23 years, which she said is her niche, and has been with HCH for nine months.
“I’ve been blessed to be in three different communities that are faith-based where it’s all about the resident and the family so that’s been my career here,” Jernigan said. “I’ve stepped back from management these past couple of years and have really just enjoyed being a staff nurse.”
Tom Neal, CEO of Highlands-Cashiers Hospital, said the hospital provides “exceptional care” through its nurses and added there are several events planned to celebrate.
“We are honored to have such exceptional nurses at both Highlands-Cashiers Hospital and Eckerd Living Center,” Neal said. “Their compassion is unmatched and the individual care they give to our patients and residents makes me proud to be a part of this amazing team. We are excited about the events we have planned to celebrate nursing and our nursing colleagues.”