Receiving Advocate Lutheran General Hospital’s 2021 Nurse of the Year Award was an unexpected honor for registered nurse Amy Freeman, who has worked in the Park Ridge hospital’s mother and baby unit for just over two decades.
“I felt like during COVID, while we did have (COVID-19) positive moms, the ICUs and other floors were going through so much more and I would have thought maybe a nurse from one of those floors would have gotten (the award),” Freeman acknowledged. “I was extremely surprised and honored.”
Freeman was one of 30 nurses from across the Advocate Aurora Health system to be recognized with a Nurse of the Year award for 2021. Recipients were selected based on nominations.
In a statement shared by Advocate Aurora Health, Jane Denten, chief nursing officer at Advocate Lutheran General, called Freeman “a patient coach and passionate, respected leader who incorporates her own exemplary nursing practices into her teaching style.”
A nurse for 24 years, Freeman has spent the duration of her career at Advocate Lutheran General, starting out as a nurse’s aide while still in nursing school. It was an opportunity to learn about nursing in multiple units of the hospital, she said.
“I always went toward kids and babies — that’s what I really wanted to do,” Freeman said. “When I got my nurse’s license, they had an opening on mother and baby and I took it. I’ve been there for 22 years.”
Freeman recently answered a few questions about her work and nursing during a pandemic where hospitals are on the front lines.
Q: How has your work changed since the pandemic started?
A: I feel like it’s a lot more stressful. The biggest thing is the visitor policies. I think it’s very hard on the patients now to not have visitors. We see patients wanting to go home sooner.
I (also) feel the stress of the nurses. Even outside of work they are stressed with everything going on in the world, and then you have that stress coming into work. Yes, the mood is different, but I’m a big believer that you need to laugh once during the day, so I do try to make my team members laugh and pick people up.
Q: What are some of your main responsibilities in the mother and baby unit?
A: We do a ton of education. A lot of times, with new moms, we are teaching them how to care for themselves and their babies for the first time, making sure they know what to do when they go home, making sure the mom and baby are healthy. We also get gynecology patients on our floor — from someone who has had a hysterectomy to someone who has an infection and needs antibiotics.
Q: What is something you do to make your patients more comfortable about being in the hospital?
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A: I am a very bubbly kind of person. I am usually always smiling and I try to make the best of every situation. I feel like you need to laugh every day. I try to make the patients laugh and I try to make them comfortable.
Q: So much is heard about the toll the pandemic is taking on healthcare workers. What keeps you going?
A: I have to say it’s my team. I do pick up a lot of extra shifts when needed and my main motivation is that I know what it is like when we’re short. It’s hard. You’re trying to give as much attention to your patients as you can, but when you are short-staffed, it’s difficult. So when we get that text looking for extra staff, I think about how my team members are feeling.
Q: Is your ward short-staffed now due to the pandemic?
A: Right now, our unit is not. Mother and baby is a different unit in the hospital because we fluctuate. Sometimes we are crazy busy and then the next day we might not have as many deliveries and we are slower and then we go to other units to help out.
Q: What is the most rewarding part of your work and what is the most challenging?
A: The most rewarding, I would say, is when a patient expresses their gratitude and says how helpful you are. The most difficult thing is when we have moms who come back as re-admits because they are sicker and need to be back in the hospital. That is hard because sometimes they are not with their babies. Sometimes we allow them to bring their babies back, but they need a support system to come with them.
Q: What else do you want people to know about your job as a nurse?
A: It is very rewarding. I know some nurses struggle these days, but I still love what I do and I always have. Most people probably can’t say they love their job, but I do. Is it harder now? Absolutely. But this is something I’ve always wanted and I’m still happy I am in this position.