I am a Nurse!

I started my career in Health Care when I was still in High School by working at Sells Nursing Facility, first as the night and weekend cook. I moved from the Kitchen to Activity Director. Upon graduation I went to college and became a Speech and Hearing practitioner.  I worked several years with severe behavioral and mentally disabled children and young adults, developing specialized hearing testing and nonverbal communication programs.  When the regulations changed for my field, I went back to school and became a Registered Nurse.   I just knew my career had to be in a health related field, my mission was to be a care giver.

I started my Nursing career in the hospital setting, with Orthopedic and Infectious Disease as a specialty. After several years in this setting, I moved on to Home Health which became my favorite arena for nursing.  Being able to go into a patient’s home and taking care of their needs was the most rewarding aspect. Not only did I enjoy doing nursing in the home for the patient but family education was equally as rewarding.  Home Health in rural Kentucky, you were not just a nurse providing care, you became part of the family.

Once I relocated to South Florida, I thought I would learn so much more about Home Health Nursing and was shocked to learn that in the hills of Kentucky we were doing far more in the home setting than was being conducted in the large metropolitan area of South Florida. The most discouraging aspect of doing Home Health in South Florida in the late 1980’s was that I never got to see the same patient twice. I did not have the same connection with my patients that I had back in Kentucky where you were assigned a patient/family and you were their primary nurse till discharged from services.

Becoming discouraged with the Home Health arena in South Florida, I came across an advertisement asking nurses looking for a change in their career. I went to the open house this company was having and became a Field Case Manager with a company called International Rehabilitation Associates, which later became Intracorp.  I was hooked in a matter of months with this new aspect of nursing handling Workers’ Compensation Injuries. I was able to assist the individual to ensure the appropriate medical care was being obtained and move the individual back to a state of health prior to being injured on the job.

 I have moved around in this arena from Field Case Manager, Field Supervisor and Unit Manager. I even took a break from case management and went back to Home Health as an Administrator of an agency for a few years. I missed case management so returned to Intracorp.

The Case Management industry has changed over the 24 years I have been doing Medical Case Management. I personally don’t feel that the connection with the individual that was once a big part of the position is a primary focus in today’s corporate arena.

I have been wondering for several years if was time to get out of the Medical arena altogether. I just did not feel that connection with the profession that I had 31 years ago when I first obtained my license. That was until recently when I became friends with an individual that was diagnosed with cancer not long after we had met and developed our friendship. This friend asked me to be his cancer buddy and now care giver. After 5 months, I remember now why I fell in love with nursing, skills I have not used in years simply surfaced as if being in hibernation for all these years.

Sure I had taken care of other friends’ minor health issues over the years, took on care giver for my mother when she was diagnosed. This time it was different in some way, someone I had not known very long was depending on me to assist with the most critical health issue that he had ever encountered.

I have experienced a renewal of why I became a nurse and a case manager, to assist someone in dealing with the complexity of the medical profession and to ensure the best care possible if provided by all those involved.  I am a Nurse.

Keep Dancin’ Larry B