Ingram’s February 2023

Auxiliary Staff

Heroes in Healthcare 2023

CHRIS BUESING Stormont Vail Health Health care is replete with stories of personal sacrifice made by providers, nurses, staff, and ad ministrators. Not many in the profession have paid the price for their commitment at the level Chris Buesing has. Five years ago, in a Stormont Vail facility, a complete stranger beset Buesing, striking him in the face and breaking his jaw. The fracture required his mouth to be wired shut for six weeks, then for eight more after doctors had to rebreak the bone to improve the positioning. Then came two years of braces to realign things. So he understands how workplace violence can instill feelings of depression, fear, and a constant feeling of anxious alertness in patients and staff. Since that day, he’s made addressing those fears a central part of his job at Stormont Vail Health, where he’s director of worker’s compensation and workforce safety. “When I talk with health-care workers about workplace violence, I remind them that, for the most part, patients and visitors are coming into the health-

care setting due to a traumatic or painful situation—in a hospital, patients and visitors are already full of emotions,” he says. “Before I got into health care, I did not understand that this is the experience every day and all day for health-care professionals.” The public, he says, may see a nurse, doctor, therapist, or medical technician but will usually have no clue about the experiences of those staffers: Some may have been yelled at, spit on, or punched by someone they are trying to help. “The other side of that is, even after dealing with this over and over, health-care workers still come back and do their best each and every day to help others,” Buesing says. “It’s hard to fully grasp this reality until you experience it or see it first-hand—so I think talking about it and education is important for everyone to get involved in the conversation to improve these challenges that happen every day all across the country in health care.”

SUSAN OWETI University Health

RYAN HARDESTY The University of Kansas Hospital When Ryan Hardesty started working at The University of Kansas Health System five years ago, there was an undeniable familial quality to the experience. On one level, that’s because his mother was working there, too, and since then, two sis ters and a brother have joined the staff that supports hands-on provid

An increasingly diverse nation implies linguistic barriers, and there are few situations where running into those challenges can have worse outcomes than in health care. Susan Oweti is standing watch to see that communication challenges don’t in- terfere with patients’ needs. She holds the title of cultural health

navigator for University Health, where she was recently part of a multi-disciplinary team that formed the One World Pantry, an on site resource for patients living with food insecurity. Her charge is no small undertaking: She started at the hospital in 2006 as a med ical interpreter and is now part of a team that responds to about 165,000 interpreter requests each year. That experience gave her insights into other patient needs, leading to her involvement in creating and filling the role of navigator. In that capacity, she helps improve social determinants of health by screening and assist ing immigrant, refugee, and non-English speaking patients. The hospital says that just two years after it was established, the pro gram has provided guidance for more than 6,500 unique patients. “My favorite part of the job is to wake up every morning know ing that I am going to make a positive impact in someone’s life and give them hope,” Oweti says. “I have a lot of patient stories I can share with you.” She’s a native of South Sudan, but her child hood as the daughter of career diplomats was marked by travels through different countries and cultures—Russia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Canada, and the U.S. She’s firmly settled in Kansas City and holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada. In addition to her translation services—she speaks five different dialects of Arabic alone—she’s part of a team at the pantry that serves as many as 50 families a day, offering fresh produce and to date has distributed more than 30,000 pounds of food.

ers in a thousand ways that often go unnoticed. Ryan’s dominion therein is with the transport team as a patient greeter. His is often one of the first faces patients see when they arrive—a time when many are stressed and, occasionally, emotional. For almost any one outside the maternity ward, hospital admission is among the darker days of their lives. “I ask the patients where they’re from and also ask them what their favorite hobbies are, and after that is all said and done, I make sure they have a great day when they leave,” Hardesty says. “Talking to new patients and telling every good thing about the hospital and helping new patients to the best of my ability,” is his favorite aspect of the job, he says. His bosses say the impressive part of Hardesty’s work ethic is his unfailing desire to own his role. He is often the first person a patient and family meet when they drive up to the entrance of the hospital, and he quickly works to assess the patient’s need for assistance and provides a wheelchair or an arm to lean on while walking if needed. On the back end of a stay, Hardesty is frequently the last person patients and families encounter after discharge. “The thing that inspires me every day is to improve myself by challenging myself to be better than the day before and to be better the next day,” Hardesty says. His pinnacle experience? “Probably the best would be seeing the one where someone got a a second chance at life,” he says, “That’s what drives me to be the best worker I can be here until the day I retire.”

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I ngr am ’ s

February 2023

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