A love letter to health care professionals
I learned the phrase “professional crush” during my first job out of college. I think it’s such a fun and lighthearted way to show how much I admire someone professionally. To me, a professional crush includes a dash of “I’m intimidated by you,” with “but you’re also approachable.” I’ve found it particularly useful when I’m unsure how to compliment someone professionally in a way that truly expresses my deep admiration.
Since that first job out of college, my professional crushes have been largely health care professionals. In fact, they have been so firmly in my professional crush category that I started a company to support them (Clinician Nexus).
I know I’m far from alone in my gratitude for those who work in health care. During this time of crisis, health care professionals have become the new superheroes. For me, they’ve been superheroes for most of my life. Let me tell you why.
My mom
My mom was the person who introduced me to the life-changing impact that health care professionals can make. She worked as a respiratory therapist throughout my childhood. I vividly recall her rushing out the door to deal with an emergency and coming home hours later, often with tears in her eyes as she processed what she had witnessed. But day after day, year after year, she kept going back because she loved the people she served. She shared stories where she was literally the only reason a person was breathing, while their family members came one by one to say their goodbyes. Still, the meaning in those moments is what drove her. That is the level of passion and dedication I grew up being exposed to.
While in high school, my older sister and I did our best to support my mom by watching our baby sisters. My dad, who worked as the branch manager for an architecture and engineering firm, loves my mom dearly. Along with his daughters, he spent many hours making sure our home was clean and the laundry was done so that mom could relax when she got off work.
At the time, I didn’t fully appreciate how much heart and soul went into treating patients. The way my mom cared for her patients had an enormous impact on me, which ignited a passion to support health care professionals like my mom. Each day, I am reminded of the meaningful work that is done by our health care professions and it fuels my commitment to improving clinical education. This is my way of honoring my mom’s legacy.
My husband
At 25 years old, six months after we were married, my brand-new-husband Peter received a diagnosis that would change our lives — Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The next one and a half years of our lives were spent in and out of the hospital. I ached as I watched my husband’s vibrant personality disappear with each new drug, to see him retreat inside his own mind in an attempt to get through the treatments. It was during this time that I learned the painful lesson that watching people hurt can be just as hard as being the one who hurts.
And it wasn’t just me.
Peter’s second round of treatment was particularly aggressive and involved an autologous stem cell transplant to reboot his immune system. He spent 18 days in the hospital, which was, in reality, a remarkably fast recovery, one that only a 26-year-old could have. During any other time in life, 18 days seems like a blink of an eye, but when you are in a transplant unit, it feels like you’re in molasses.
During that time, Peter was treated by a nurse named Melissa, who was at Peter’s bedside for several 12-hour shifts. Melissa’s heart was as big as her incredible nursing skills.
I will never forget how she would sit with us in Peter’s room. And I mean literally just sit with us. That’s what we needed, and she somehow knew it. The conversations were raw and very real — the kind of conversations where you are fully present to what is actually happening and no illusions stand in the way. It was wrenching to see what was happening to Peter, and I told her that I wish I could take Peter’s spot. Melissa’s eyes filled with tears. She was a highly competent nurse, but in that moment, she was the empathetic friend we needed.
One day, Melissa came in to teach a small cohort of nursing students how to collect a blood sample after Peter’s temperature spiked. The staff was careful to ask if Peter would be willing to have three extra people in his tiny room. He was such a kind patient during this entire experience and willingly invited them in.
Peter had a PICC line in his left arm. The nurses gathered around his IV machine. Being in such a small room, it was difficult for all the nurses to get a good look at what was going on. One of the students moved in closer and didn’t realize she had stepped on Peter’s tubing and yanked on his arm.
In that moment I witnessed three beautiful things:
- In his pain, Peter chose to be gentle and kind to the nurse.
- Melissa, the teacher at this moment, demonstrated how to ensure the patient was safe first and then turned it into a teaching moment once she knew Peter was okay.
- The nursing student was mortified and wildly apologetic. You could see how much it pained her to cause harm to her patient, even though clearly accidental.
What was and is still very beautiful to me today is the compilation of tiny moments like this that form the experiences of any clinician. Peter’s reaction, Melissa’s reaction, my reaction. There was so much heart and compassion in that moment. That’s what health care is to me.
My colleagues
I worked in an office of health professional education at a large health system shortly after college. Working for this health system felt familiar, as my mom had worked as a respiratory therapist in one of their hospitals.
I loved that job. I found that being involved with content creation, curation, and finally, student experience was immensely rewarding. I worked with brilliant physicians, nurses, and administrators every day and loved being a part of making future clinicians’ journeys memorable.
It was in this role that I fell in love with the clinical education community and learned that clinical education experiences can be the making of a hero.
Everyone loves a good hero story. However, what isn’t always presented in the story is the self-doubt, fear, anxiety, and desire for comfort that haunts the hero. We just want to know that they overcame it, but we’re not always so quick to embrace the mess of that journey. Every clinician knows this experience, and it can be particularly raw during the rotational experience.
I didn’t fully understand those fears and anxieties until I launched Clinician Nexus. I desperately wanted to help support aspiring clinicians as they begin their careers, but launching a startup is no easy thing.
Enter my latest professional crushes — my co-founders and the rest of the team at Clinician Nexus. These amazing human beings each have their own unique reasons why they care so deeply about health care professionals. It is truly an honor to work with people who share my passion for clinical education, but who also bring such distinct and varied skillsets. It’s what makes Clinician Nexus such a strong and innovative company. I could not be more proud.
Why am I sharing my journey?
Nothing great is accomplished alone. My hope is that by sharing my journey we can learn together how to best support one another as humans as we train the next generation of clinicians. My hope is that by sharing my story and stories of others in our community that we can keep the dialogue going.
It has been a privilege to see our health system from so many lenses. As the daughter of a health care professional, the caregiver of a patient, and now a colleague, I have a deep understanding and appreciation for how and why our clinical education system needs to be reinvented.
My professional crushes on the health care professionals in my life have been a life-long affair. I know I’m not alone in what I feel, particularly at this moment when health care professionals are the new superheroes of our society. That makes me tremendously optimistic for the future, but also incredibly vigilant in making sure these heroes in our midst get the support they need to be the best possible health care professionals they can be, right from the start.
Please join me as I use this forum to explore the intersection of humans and health care systems. My goal is to enlist as many bright and passionate minds as possible to create the best version of tomorrow. Together, I know we will do just that.
With love,
Katrina
