“If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”
—From the song “New York, New York”

Maybe nursing should be called “the New York of professions,” because if you are good at bedside nursing, there is no telling what else you can do.

Most people who go into nursing do so because they want to take care of the sick and injured. It’s a good thing they do, too, because the bedside is where nurses are needed most.

But being a nurse these days doesn’t necessarily mean you provide hands-on care in a hospital or physician’s office. It doesn’t even mean you have direct contact with patients.

A number of members of the FirstHealth family have found that their training and nursing experience have opened doors to all sorts of other opportunities to make a difference. However, even those who are not in what might be considered traditional nursing roles are certain that they are able to do their jobs better because they are—and always will be—nurses.

Carole White, R.N.
Director of Donor Services
Foundation of FirstHealth
Organizing fund-raising events and nurturing relationships with donors isn’t typically what nurses do.

“But if you have been a nurse, you find that you can use the knowledge and communication skills you learn in nursing in almost any job,” says Carole White, R.N.

As director of Donor Services for the Foundation of FirstHealth, Carole White is actively involved in annual fund-raising events, including the Blue Jean Ball and the Hospice Pottery Plus Auction.

For example, three years ago, as part of her job as director of Donor Services, she began visiting hospital patients who were
FirstHealth contributors.

“I would re-explain what the doctor had told them to make sure they understood, and if they had questions, I would try to get them answered,” she says. “I was sort of a nurse resource for the patient and family.”

White hasn’t been able to perform that service for the past year because of her own health problems, but she hopes to resume in the near future. She says the service is especially appreciated by widows and widowers who don’t have relatives living nearby. Keeping families informed of the progress of their loved one is very important, not only for the patient but also for the patient’s extended family.

Beneath the Foundation of FirstHealth umbrella are foundations that raise funds for the FirstHealth hospitals, as well as a number of funds that support specific patient care services. White serves as director of the FirstHealth Hospice Foundation and coordinates the annual Pottery Auction that raises funds for Hospice. She also oversees the Cancer CARE Fund, which helps ensure that local, low-income cancer patients receive the medications and treatment they need.

White frequently arranges informal educational sessions for people who may be interested in learning about specific funding opportunities. She and other Foundation staff members work with donors who agree to host receptions in their homes for small groups of these potential contributors. These receptions helped create a nearly $9 million endowment for Hospice.

Providing resources so that nurses have what they need to do their job can be just as rewarding as direct patient care. It is, White says, “just another way ‘to care for people.”

White served as director of Hospice for nine years before joining the Foundation in 1998.

“I learned so much about building relationships and developing skills for leading volunteers and making them feel appreciated,” she says. “All of that is so much a part of what I am doing for the Foundation.”

Prior to becoming Hospice director, White worked as director of risk management at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital and volunteered as a Hospice nurse. She began her career as a bedside nurse and then taught nursing for a number of years.

Dawn McDonald, R.N.
Director of Clinical Performance
FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital
Dawn McDonald is like that company that says, “We don’t make a lot of the products you buy; we make a lot of products you buy better.”

McDonald rarely provides patient care at Richmond Memorial, but she helps make patient care better. She tracks data on the care that patients receive and the results of their treatment. Part of this data collection is to comply with Medicare and Medicaid requirements, and part of it is to demonstrate
that the hospital is maintaining national accreditation standards.

As director of Clinical Performance at Richmond Memorial Hospital, Dawn McDonald, R.N., rarely gets the chance to provide patient care, but she helps make patient care better by tracking data on treatment results.

On a day-to-day basis, the indicators of quality that McDonald monitors help ensure that individual patients receive the best possible care.

“I distribute data to the staff so they know how well we are meeting standards of appropriate care and appropriate documentation
of care,” she says.

McDonald teaches CPR and other classes for the hospital’s nurses. She also oversees the hospital’s discharge planners who make sure patients receive whatever follow-up care or support they might need, such as visits from a Home Health nurse, after they leave the hospital.

McDonald was a respiratory therapist for several years before deciding to become a nurse. She has worked in emergency rooms, in Home Health and, at Richmond Memorial, in intensive care and outpatient surgery. She joined the Scotland County Health Department in 2003 to coordinate bio-terrorism response planning, but she continued to fill in as an ICU nurse. She returned to the hospital full time last year to lead staff and patient education. Since then, her responsibilities have greatly expanded, meaning she has little time for direct patient care.

“But I still like to work in intensive care or on a floor whenever I can so that I remember what it’s like to be there,” she says. “If I’m going to be able to make things better for the nurses in the trenches, it helps for me to get in the trenches with them.”

Sandra Morris, R.N.
Director of Health Services
FirstCarolinaCare Inc.
When a company provides health insurance for its employees, it looks for solid and cost-effective coverage. For employers with FirstCarolinaCare, FirstHealth’s insurance company, that coverage also includes a big dose of wellness and preventive programs.

FirstCarolinaCare’s Sandra Morris is responsible for these varied programs, beginning with an employer work site health fair. During the health fair, the company’s employees and adult dependents are screened for a variety of health conditions.

Sandra Morris, R.N., began her career in health care as an X-ray technician and is now the director of Health Services for FirstCarolinaCare Inc., FirstHealth’s insurance company.

“People don’t always know that they have high blood pressure or their cholesterol is elevated,” Morris says. “They might not know they are diabetic, or if they know, they might not be doing enough to control it.”

If employees are found to have these types of health conditions, Morris says, they can take part in one of FirstCarolinaCare’s chronic care programs.

“We provide the members with education,” she says. “There’s a nurse available to talk with them on the phone. We can also refer plan members to other FirstHealth resources like the Diabetes Self-Management Program and the FirstQuit program for tobacco cessation.”

After the initial health fair, FirstCarolinaCare nurses periodically return to the work site to see what progress participants have made and to answer any questions or address concerns they might have.

“We want to be proactive in keeping healthy people healthy and helping those who aren’t as healthy to improve their health status,” Morris says. “We are really proud of maintaining close contact with our plan members. That personal touch is one thing that sets us apart from other insurance companies.”

Morris also oversees the pre-authorization process for hospital admissions and certain types of treatment for FirstCarolinaCare plan members.

“I audit the process to make sure that all state and federal regulations are met and that member expectations are also met,” she says.

“By improving the health status of our members, we are able to keep the employer costs down, which, in turn, keeps more people insured and expands coverage to the uninsured,” Morris says.

Morris was an X-ray technician before going to nursing school and then working in emergency rooms and intensive care units. Although she no longer cares for patients directly, she still considers herself a nurse.

“I’m still using all of my nursing knowledge, and if I didn’t have that, I really couldn’t be effective in this position,” she says. “Once you’ve had a few years of experience as a bedside nurse, the world is open to you.”

Beth Walker, R.N.
Director of Healthcare Effectiveness
FirstHealth Montgomery Memorial Hospital
Beth Walker has spent practically her whole life at the hospital in Troy. She was born there, and so were her own children. She went to elementary school across the street from the hospital, and after school she would hang out in the lobby and wait for her mother, who was the operating room supervisor for 41 years.

During her high school and college years, Walker worked in the hospital pharmacy in the summer. After earning her nursing
degree in Charlotte, she returned to Montgomery Memorial and worked in the medical-surgical unit and then in the intensive
care unit.

Beth Walker, R.N., grew up around Montgomery Memorial Hospital, where her mother was Operating Room supervisor for more than 40 years. Walker now manages the hospital’s Healthcare Effectiveness department.

“I loved taking care of the sickest patients, having that one-on-one relationship with them,” she says.

Walker was director of nursing at Montgomery Memorial for three years in the early 1990s. Now, she manages the hospital’s Healthcare Effectiveness department.
Like Dawn McDonald at Richmond Memorial, she tracks clinical data to make sure all of the hospital’s patient care services are performing at a high level of quality. She also supervises staff members who are responsible for safety, infection control, risk management and discharge planning.

“Working in a small hospital, we all have to do a variety of jobs,” Walker says. “Sometimes I think it might be nice to specialize
in one area, but it really spices things up to be involved in a lot of different things, so I love what I do.”

Much of Walker’s job involves problem-solving, analyzing situations and looking at various options for getting things done.

“I have the opportunity to be a helper to a lot of people here,” she says. “Because of my broad experience, including nursing, I think I have a lot of what this job needs, and it definitely has a lot of what satisfies me.”

Judy Oldham, R.N.
FirstHealth School Nurse
Pinecrest High School
Yes, as a school nurse, Judy Oldham bandages scraped elbows and dispenses aspirin for headaches. But she also deals with complaints that she sees as a sign of the times.

“School nurses see more stress-related things than we used to—panic disorders, anxiety disorders,” she says. “There’s a lot of pressure on kids these days.”

As one of FirstHealth’s school health nurses, Judy Oldham, R.N., has a patient population that includes 2,000 or so students at Moore County’s Pinecrest High School, as well as the school’s teachers and staff.

Another reflection of contemporary society, perhaps, is Oldham’s monitoring of students who are overweight or have high blood pressure. Mostly, however, she sees students with headaches and stomachaches, of which she says, “Some are real, and some … well, they are just trying to get out of class.”

And then there are students who come to see her nearly every day because “they just need somebody to connect with.”

Oldham says students often visit her several times, to find out what she’s like and if they feel they can trust her, before they open up and tell her what is really bothering them.

In addition to being available for students to visit throughout the school day, Oldham holds group sessions with girls who have babies or are pregnant.

“We try to help them deal with the various problems they have and help them stay in school,” she says.

That part of her job grew out of the school’s Teen Life Center program, which Pinecrest operated with grant funding for several years. A main goal of the program was dropout prevention, particularly among teen mothers. Oldham was the program’s half-time nurse. She also taught a medical careers class at the school.

Oldham was a member of the first nursing class at Sandhills Community College. After graduating, she worked on a medical unit and then in the recovery room at Moore Regional Hospital. She left nursing for a few years after the birth of her first child.

Although she enjoyed bedside nursing and still misses it sometimes, she says she loves being a school nurse.

“Teenagers are great people,” she says. “They have a lot of energy and good ideas. Being around them keeps you young.”

Barbara Allred, R.N.
FirstHealth Patient Education Coordinator
Barbara Allred always looks forward to April when all of the first-graders in Moore County come to Moore Regional for the Teddy Bear Fair.

“We teach them about things that go on in the hospital so they won’t be afraid if they have to come here,” she says. “We also teach them about dental health, not smoking, bike safety and using seat belts.”

One of Barbara Allred’s jobs as a patient education coordinator for FirstHealth of the Carolinas involves coordinating the annual Safe Sitters training for girls and boys who want to learn good babysitting skills.

Coordinating the Teddy Bear Fair is just one small part of Allred’s job. Her main responsibility is providing nurses with educational materials for patients.

“Everything we use goes through our Patient Education Committee because we want to be sure that it is all accurate and appropriate,” she says.

Every Tuesday, Allred facilitates a support group for cancer patients at Moore Regional. She also helps coordinate 17 other patient support groups that meet regularly at the hospital, and she provides interpreters for patients who don’t speak English and “signers” for the deaf.“

I assess the patient with the nursing staff and determine the most important times for the signer or interpreter to be here,” she says. “For example, they really need to be here when the nurses are giving discharge instructions, because we want the patient to be well-informed and compliant.”

In the summer, Allred coordinates Safe Sitter classes for young teens who are baby-sitters. The program’s instructors teach basic safety and first aid.

“They teach the sitters rescue breathing and what to do for a choking child,” she says. “They also teach them how to assess whether a problem is something they can take care of and when they need to call a responsible adult or 911.”

Allred began working at Moore Regional as an LPN in 1960 and later became an R.N. She worked for many years as an ENT nurse, became an operating room supervisor and then was the hospital’s associate director of surgical services. She became the OR patient educator in 1990 and, in 1999, FirstHealth’s patient education coordinator.

“It’s a big challenge, but I love it,” she says. “I get to work with people in every part of the hospital and from all over FirstHealth.”

Leigh Barbour, R.N.
FirstHealth Employee Health Nurse
Most FirstHealth employees and volunteers, except for those at Richmond Memorial Hospital and Montgomery Memorial Hospital, come to Leigh Barbour once a year for a TB skin test. That means she performs more than 3,000 TB tests a year and then provides follow-up for those who test positive. She also does drug screening for all new employees and gives them any immunization shots they may not have had.

“I’m the shot lady,” she says with a laugh.

Leigh Barbour, R.N., calls herself the “shot lady,” because she administers the required TB tests and vaccinations of new employees of FirstHealth of the Carolinas. Barbour is the organization’s employee health nurse.

Another important part of her job is ensuring that employees who become exposed to certain diseases on the job receive the roper medication and follow-up testing.

And, of course, as the Employee Health nurse, she takes care of things like minor cuts and scrapes.

Barbour’s first nursing job was at Wake Medical Center in Raleigh. She came to Moore Regional in 1966 and has been there ever since. She worked in practically every patient care area before taking on the job of nursing administrative supervisor. She also started the hospital’s wellness program and fitness center, which has evolved into the Center for Health & Fitness.

“I taught aerobics, weight-training, stress management, weight-loss and smoking cessation, and I had handicapped adults in the pool for water aerobics,” she says.

She ran the hospital’s wellness program for 10 years and, for a time, also worked in cardiac rehabilitation and employee health. She became the full-time Employee Health nurse in 1989.

“The hospital has grown and changed so much, but the people who work here are still like family to me,” Barbour says. “The first day I came to work here 39 years ago, I felt like I was home, and I still feel that way.

“At orientation for new employees, I tell them, ‘I’m your mama. I’m here to take care of you.’”

A nurse in Human Resources Georganne McDaniel, R.N., probably could do a good job as FirstHealth’s employee relations manager regardless of her background. But she is pretty sure that her experience as a nurse enables her to do the job better. McDaniel helps managers in all areas of FirstHealth deal with sometimes-difficult personnel problems, and she helps employees who have complaints about or challenges with a supervisor or co-worker. Georganne McDaniel’s nursing background comes into play every day in her role as employee relations manager for FirstHealth’s Human Resource Department. “I help the management team deal with all sorts of issues,” she says. “For example, an employee may have a health problem, and the manager is concerned about their ability to perform all of the functions of their job. The manager may need clarification on FirstHealth policy or state or federal laws to make sure they advise employees correctly and treat them fairly. My job is to help them problem-solve to reach the best solution for the organization and, hopefully, for the employee.” Beyond helping managers make good decisions, McDaniel tries to make sure they implement those decisions in the best possible way. “It’s one thing to decide to counsel an employee,” she says. “It’s equally important to document the counseling correctly and deliver it in a way that the employee walks out knowing they need to improve their performance or behavior, but they aren’t made to feel like they’re not a good person.” She notes that the core purpose of FirstHealth is “to care for people.” “That’s not just for patients,” she says. “It applies to managers and employees, too.” Employees sometimes come to McDaniel for clarification of human resources policies. “Maybe they feel they’ve been treated unfairly, and they aren’t sure what avenues are available for them to pursue,” she says. “I can help them problem-solve and advise them on the policies that are in place to protect them and to provide them with an appropriate course of action.” Along with members of the hospital’s Corporate Education staff, McDaniel teaches the Quality Management Skills classes that all new FirstHealth managers are required to take. “This training really focuses on participative management,” she says. “We try to instill that philosophy in people when they accept a management role with FirstHealth.” In an ongoing process, McDaniel works with individual managers who ask for her help in improving their management skills and style. McDaniel started her career as a bedside hospital nurse and later was a Home Health program manager. She joined FirstHealth as a nurse recruiter and became Human Resources manager nine years ago. Her nursing experience has helped her in that position, she said, especially since almost 29 percent of FirstHealth’s employees are nurses. “There are a lot of advantages to being a nurse and being able to relate a bit differently because of my nursing background,” she says, “and I think the clinical managers probably appreciate the fact that I’m a nurse. When an employee or manager is talking about something that happened in a clinical situation, they know that I understand, and I think that creates a sense of camaraderie.”