Name: Cathy Shields
Position: Registered nurse Ambulatory nurse
Where she is working: Tidalhealth Medical group cardiology
Education: Associate degree in nursing
What inspired her to get into this field: Since third grade she wanted to be a nurse to help others.
What was her path to her current job: She was an army brat and married someone in the army so she moved around a lot in the process. When she graduated high school she enrolled in nursing school at the community college then worked at a rehabilitation center for a year. She then transitioned into home health. She moved to Florida and did a rotation in pediatrics then returned to where she started in Maryland and began working at Peninsula Regional Medical Center (Which is now Tidalhealth) on the telemetry unit then ICU stepdown. After that, she moved to Illinois and worked in outpatient surgery, and later moved to Indiana to do the same thing. After that, she moved to Kentucky and worked in the operation room until finally in 2016 she moved to Salisbury Maryland, and started in the cardiac cath lab. She transferred to the office setting in 2020.
Basic roles and responsibilities: Triage phone calls from current patients, hospital staff, and other doctor’s offices. She also assists with medication adjustments and education on the side effects, educates patients on procedures the doctor scheduled, order lab work, and help with signing consents for the procedure. Lastly, she assists with medication refills and prior authorization for medications. She is ACLS certified so she is available for emergencies if they happen in the office
Her favorite aspect about the job: Patient interaction. She loves to help give support and comfort to her patients.
What is the most surprising aspect of their career: The versatility of it. The medical field continues to evolve.
What is the most challenging aspect of their career: The most challenging aspect of their career is losing a patient. She also deals with a lot of patients in pain, which they take out on her. The nursing field is dealing with short staffing. Even before the pandemic nurses were short staffed but due to covid, many older nurses are retiring early.
The advice she would give to someone getting into the health field: Make sure this is something you are doing because you genuinely love it. If you really love what you do, it makes it easier to be compassionate and forgiving when they take their bad time out on you.