A West Side Nurse Story

As one of the newest nurses to have joined the Redbud team, I am honored to be able to write this to give a little glimpse of what the nurses in our office do for all our patients and families. Oftentimes, each of you will hear our voices on the other end of the phone when you call the triage line or are awaiting those important lab results but that is only a small portion of what we do daily. Our mornings begin with sorting through all the notes from specialists, reviewing lab results, and ensuring that everything is set up for the day to run smoothly when patients begin to arrive (also, can’t forget the coffee!). The first patients typically begin to arrive around 8:30 and it’s go, go, go until 5pm.

There are currently five nurses at Redbud, Kally and myself (Alyssa) at the West location. While Abby, Stacia, and Corrie hold down the fort out East. I will speak for the West office since that’s where I’m located. We take turns with various tasks depending on our role for that particular day, “Clinic nurse” vs. “triage nurse”.

As the clinic nurse, you are responsible for the clinical aspect of the office. It involves giving immunizations, breathing treatments, drawing labs, helping perform procedures, assessing patients in urgent cases, answering physician questions and whatever else is needed to help maintain the flow of the office.

The triage nurse’s role is to return parents’ calls, offer guidance on treatment, schedule appointments, and coordinate referrals. There is obviously going to be hiccups throughout the day that do not allow for it go as smoothly as we’d like but thankfully, we have rockstar medical assistants at Redbud that have our backs. As the day winds down, we begin to prepare for the next day’s work and try to tie up any loose strings.

Something that I often get asked as a pediatric nurse is “How?” “How can you see sick children every day?” “How do you go in and poke all these kiddos when giving them their immunizations?”. The answer is simple. We get to see their smiles when they feel better. We get their hugs when they are excited to see us. We get to feel the joy when parents remember our names or personal little bits about our lives. We get to watch these children and families grow while simultaneously, they watch us grow.

– Alyssa Wells, RN