From caregiver to patient: A nurse’s new perspective

For Tess Whittington, an adult ICU nurse at St. John Medical Center campus, our hospital hallways are familiar territory. It is a place where she has built her career as a caregiver. But when she returned to ASJMC for the birth of her son, Paxton, that clinical routine shifted into a personal, life-altering experience.

Throughout her birth experience and the time Paxton spent in the NICU, Tess felt deeply seen and cared for, noting that the medical teams were instrumental in minimizing her fear.

Tess said she thinks of the teams as her heroes and angels, especially the nurse who caught the symptoms that necessitated Paxton being transferred to the NICU. "She is the reason I have a healthy four-month old now."

"It completely 180-changed my perspective of the hospital," Tess said. "It was very eye opening to see a different side of the hospital, and it made me want to be a better nurse to [just] see how good they were and how much they loved their job."

It was seeing that passion, as the patient, that changed how she views her work back in the ICU. She now better understands the vulnerability that patients feel when they arrive and how these experiences shape their lives going forward.

"It is important for all of us to understand that people are coming here because they are sick and need help," she said. "It may be a really bad day in their lives and for us it is another day at work, but this is someone's life."

Now back at work in the ICU, Tess relates to what it is like to entrust family to the care of others.