5 Minutes With...

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

RON KEMP, NEW MEXICO STATE ’77

What drew you to a career in healthcare? What drove your decision to become an RN? After I graduated from New Mexico State University, I went to work in the oil business, then the real estate business. I wanted to make a difference, and contribute to humankind, but the oil business and real estate fields were not that contribution that I desired. Although those fields are still a big part of my life, and although I am still fascinated by both, I was looking for a different type of person-to-person interaction. I was called into the nursing profession and my career in healthcare has allowed me to have an impact on humankind and to touch many lives. After all, how many careers in our world allow us to have a lasting impact on lives several times per day?

How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your field over the past two years? The pandemic has caused nurses to re-assess their passion for the career of nursing. When we know all the dangers which exist, a definite passion must be present for nurses to remain active in the profession. Nurses have husbands, wives, children, aging parents, and family members with comorbidities, and the nurse could predispose them to the COVID virus. Therefore, in their profession, nurses have had to do a lot of soul searching to determine whether the benefits of the known and unknown outweigh the risks. Everyone calls nurses heroes, but we, as well as many professions,

New Mexico State 1977 Associate Class

aren’t heroes. Nursing was my calling and I signed up to take care of patients whether in a pandemic or not. Another change occurred when hospitals were not allowing elective surgeries. In addition, many patients were not able to maintain current appointments for pre-existing problems, so patients were delaying many essential procedures and assessments. This has caused another increase in patient census, because after this extended time with no treatment patients are now “sicker”.

As a nurse manager, things changed for me because I have learned to be a lot more tolerant and compassionate of staff’s issues and concerns. Children couldn’t go to school, so parents had to stay home and teach them, which caused staffing challenges in an already physically and emotionally taxing profession. Emotions were flying through the roof! Nurses were emotionally distraught, thus needing compassion, time to vent, and to be listened to. At several points along the journey the “curve appeared to be flatting”. Finally, nurses were able to take a breath, and the pandemic appeared to

be lessening. However, soon on the heels of the “flattening” the additional surges began again; an emotional roller coaster!

What nursing unit do you work with? What compelled you to work with this specific unit? Practice-wise, I am a telemetry nurse, which is the monitoring of the electrical activity along with the efficiency of the cardiac system. When I was in nursing school, I found the system that most fascinated me, and I was always drawn to patients with cardiac problems. As a manager, I have managed various departments (i.e., Telemetry, Ortho, Cardiac ICU, Interim CNO, Staffing Office, Employee Health, Med/Surg), but the ones I like the best are Cardiac Related.

Have you been affected by the current nursing shortage? If so, what challenges has that presented in your field? All hospitals and Healthcare in general have been impacted by the staffing challenges during the pandemic due to an exploding patient census. As stated previously, there were

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many nurses who were required to become teachers for their children, and this kept the nurses at home and out of the hospitals caring for patients. As a manager, I have been truly appreciative of our travel nurses, who contributed to bridging this gap. Too, our permanent nurses have worked many extra hours to care for patients. Contributing to the challenge is the fact that many nurses have retired early, while others have opted to leave the profession altogether.

What is one of your most meaningful memories as a member of the healthcare community? Wow. I have a plethora of memories, most of them are good. One memory that stands out is when a patient was suffering a heart attack in front of me and his wife in the room. I was working a night shift, and there are skeleton crews in a hospital at night anyway. I was relieving another nurse for their lunch, so I was the sole caregiver for this patient at the time. While the patient was suffering the heart attack, I completed all those appropriate tasks that my nurse’s training taught me. The patient’s life was in the balance as he was whisked off to the cardiac catheterization lab. His wife spoke to me after he was stabilized in the cardiac catheterization lab and expressed a huge amount of appreciation. She was so thankful that I was there and thankful that I stayed with him until the cardiac catheterization lab nurses transferred him to perform his procedure. When he recovered, he returned to my care, and he too echoed his wife’s comments. Similar scenarios presented themselves many times throughout my career, and it is truly satisfying to know that I was able to impact a life, and that I was essential and appreciated.

In your opinion, what is the most rewarding aspect of your career? Likewise, what is one of the biggest struggles you face? One of the most rewarding aspects as a manager is the fact that I can care for, support and mentor those who are taking care of others. Now, I am able to impact the lives of not only the patients, but of nurses alike. One of my major struggles is the medical decisions which are inconsistent with my beliefs or morals. However, one of the beauties of being human is that our choices are exactly that…our choices, and I must respect those individual decisions, even though I might struggle with it.

How did your time as an undergraduate member of Phi Kappa Tau help to prepare you for your career? I realized there are many cultures and ideas within the fraternity. The fraternity did so much for me, maturing me while still enjoying a positive college life. The founding fathers knew how to grow high school aged boys into mature young men. We probably had too much fun at times (nothing dangerous), but many of those relationships still exist today.

What is one of your favorite memories as a member of Phi Kappa Tau? I especially remember the comradery of Greek sing. Phi Kappa Tau at New Mexico State University was the Greek sing Fraternity participant, who had the “color outside the lines” singers. This was a great time of Brotherhood building. Oddly enough, I don’t remember the level of performance or the ranking we achieved among the Greeks, but what I remember is the contribution to Brotherhood bonding.

Do you believe more undergraduate members should consider the nursing field as a career option? If so, why? Nursing is the best career in the world! So yes, I do believe more should join the profession of nursing, IF they have a passion for people and IF they love caring for people. If not, as with any career, they won’t be happy. Unless the fire is there, a nurse can’t be successful without passion and compassion. Nursing has been very satisfying for me, and my love for people has made me successful. I guess I would relate it to balancing my checkbook. Although I am not a banker, it helps to at least know how to balance my checkbook. Likewise, everyone might not want to be a nurse and care for patients every day, but medical knowledge can still prove beneficial.

With medicine and healthcare at the forefront of discussion and debate, do you have any parting thoughts or words of wisdom for our readers and their loved ones? Once again, nursing is the best career ever! The past two years have been stressful for all walks of life, and all populations deserve congratulations and recognition, not only healthcare professionals. The entire population should pat themselves on the back – we made it! The world calls nurses heroes. I appreciate the admiration, but I don’t see myself as a hero, because my calling is to be a nurse. The past couple of years have been the most stressful and impacting time of my nursing career, but taking care of patients is what I signed up to do. Nurses encounter many issues that only another nurse will understand, and since we do, nurses are very deserving of all the kudos and all the compensation that comes.

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