Ingram’s February 2023

Nursing

LAUREN PLUMMER Children’s Mercy Kansas City

PATRICIA CONLEY Research Medical Center

“Some of life’s most authentic mo ments,” says Lauren Plummer, “come from difficult situations.” And she should know: She’s a nurse in the car diac intensive-care unit at Children’s Mercy Hospital, where every day brings some measure of hope, healing and, oc casionally, heartache. “When you are dealing with life and death, you see the

Nursing school can teach you the role that kindness, fairness and compassion play in a model health care provider. It’s better, though, if you start your first day of classes with those values engrained. “I feel like I had wonderful parents,” says St. Louis native Patricia Conley. “I think they gave me a strong founda

good, bad, and ugly,” Plummer says. “It creates a strong bond between you, your colleagues, the patient, and their families. It can be difficult knowing the long road many of our patients face, but it is very reward ing when you can help during desperate times. I am honored these fam ilies trust me.” Plummer is a native of Wichita who seems to have had a medical calling in her DNA. “My entire family is medical,” she says. “My father is an optometrist, my mother is an RN, and both of my siblings are physicians. By setting the example of caring for others, my siblings and I followed suit.” Not until nursing school did she realized some thing was missing during adult clinical rotations. “I did my practicum in the pediatric ICU and fell in love,” she says. “You care not only for children but for their families. The population itself requires special ized and individualized care; it feels personal.” Plummer says she was especially connected to “my first patient that I saw through multiple surgeries, difficult times, and eventually had to say goodbye to. I spent many nights rocking the baby and holding the family at the bedside. I knew this patient population was special.” Her level of compassion and care earned her one of the hospital’s Daisy Awards; years ago, she had cared for a young boy who didn’t survive, but the patient’s brother nev er forgot what he had seen. “Fast forward to this past year when I was withdrawing on a patient,” Plummer says, and the colleague “pulled me aside to tell me that he chose this career because of me. He is now the most wonderful cardiac APRN! I know what I do matters, but this was a reminder that we do make a difference, even on a ‘normal day at work.’

tion of values, and they inspired me to achieve goals in education and whatever career I chose.” The choice started to come into focus when she was able to serve as a candy striper at a hospi tal there. “You could volunteer at that time and really do stuff,” Conley says. “They had me in ICU feeding patients—you couldn’t do that today. I transported patients; it was pretty incredible.” Drawing on the experiences of her youth caring for grandpar ents, she made the commitment to nursing. “I always felt it was a privilege and honor when you enter someone’s personal space to help them feel the best they can,” she says. “I had that sense of fulfillment.” After nursing school at Saint Louis University, she worked in Chicago before coming to Kansas City in 1990 and later earning a doctorate in nursing. She’s been with Research for nearly five years, serving now as a clinical nurse coordina tor. “I really like the fast pace, figuring things out, being around people,” she says. “I love the staff and like to learn all the time.” Her administrative functions, she says, “gave me this bigger vi sion, a larger platform to see what was going on, understand why we’re doing things and what we’re doing. And I feel like I can be a resource for other units.” Her years in nursing are replete with positive experiences involving both patients and staff. “It’s been a composite of all those, teaching and treating,” Conley says. “I really enjoy helping a student who turns into a CNC on anoth er unit, or goes onto being a good nurse elsewhere.”

BRET FULLER St. Mary’s Medical Center Strange, isn’t it, how a single thought can change a life trajectory? Bret Fuller knows the feeling well. Life, in the form of fatherhood just after graduating from Mizzou, tugged this Springfield native away from plans for medical school, but the caring impulse remained strong, and Fuller settled on nursing. Soon after came The Encounter. “I had some interactions with a patient that I don’t think I’ll ever forget,” he says. “She asked about my career goals as a nurse. When I told her that I was interested in becoming a nurse anesthetist, she said that I was too good with interacting with people and that skill would be wasted in anesthesia ‘because everyone would be asleep!’ I think that conversation had more of an effect on my career path than I ever would have imagined.” For 17 years, he served in the Mercy Health system before coming to the Kansas City area, first with St. Joseph Medical Center, and now St. Mary’s. That came after the deeply spiritual Fuller was in church a decade ago, lis tening to a pastor describe a new church being formed here. “I felt prompted by God to pull up stakes in Spring

field and move,” he says. “I really had no idea what would happen, but I was confident that it was the right move because it was from God. I gave notice at work the following day.” Over the course of nearly 30 years in nursing, he’s looked at the ladder and pondered the next rung. “I’ve been in management three different times, and I have always returned to the bedside,” he says, most recently during the pandemic began in 2020. “Many nurses left during that time,” he says. “Some left nursing entirely while others went to independent agencies. It was a very stressful time, and I exited management after nine months. By then we had entered the second wave of the pandemic, and we had a dwindling core staff combined with numerous agency staff. I put in a lot of hours.” But the experience for health-care workers broadly, he says, has served as a catalyst for change in the care professions, and he has found renewed strength thanks to his faith. “If not for my faith in Jesus, the love of my wife and daughters, and dedication to my remaining colleagues and community, I doubt I would be where I am now,” Fuller says.

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February 2023