Last Updated on December 19, 2022
Please join us in congratulating Ellen L., LPN, Jenessa P., RN and Eleschia W., LPN, our CareerStaff Clinicians of the Month for June 2020!
“America’s nurses are the beating heart of our medical system,” as former President Barack Obama famously told the ANA in 2010. We couldn’t agree more — and we couldn’t be prouder or more grateful to have amazing professionals like Ellen, Jenessa and Eleschia in our network.
So let’s get to know them better! We reached out to our three CareerStaff Clinicians of the Month for June 2020 to talk about their careers, inspiration and lots more. Through it all, a few themes shone through: the love for nursing, the connection with patients, and the confidence that they’ve made the right career choice.
>Introducing CareerStaff Clinicians of the Month! Each team nominates 1 clinician per month and then the nominees are entered into a randomized drawing. Three are chosen for that month and recognized as Clinicians of the Month! Recipients get a shout-out in our newsletter, a $100 gift card and the chance to win $1,000 in our Quarterly Raffle!
“I love my career,” as Eleschia told us. “This is what I am meant to do. I treat, heal, encourage all walks of life.”
‘Be the Helping Hand’
After working as a CNA for a decade and a half, Eleschia became an LPN three years ago, part of her lifelong journey in the nursing profession.
“I’ve wanted to be a nurse for as long as I can remember,” she added. “My great grandmother was a diabetic and I learned at the age of 12 to give her insulin.”
Jenessa P., CareerStaff RN in Washington.
Similarly, Ellen told us that she knew early in her career that healthcare would be her life’s work. She told a story that traces that inspiration with the connections she’s made with the families of patients — and the challenges those relationships sometimes present for caregivers.
“When I worked in the ER as a CNA, I held a little boy’s hand while his mother was in care and passed away,” she said. “I hated every minute of it, but that’s when I knew I needed to further my career and become a nurse. It was so compelling and moved me and really made me realize this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Take care of others and be the helping hand.”
A registered nurse for just over a year and a half, Jenessa is also a successful entrepreneur who owns a number of coffee shops in her community. She told us how talking with nurses while working as a barista near a health center helped her realize that she wanted to follow their path.
“I realized pretty much all at once as I was talking with an ER nurse that she and the nurses I talked to embodied what I wanted to become,” she told us. “Down to earth, capable, strong and kind people. I wanted to be part of that group of people. I wanted to do a job that made me more like them. They felt like my people long before I was a nurse.”
That sense of community, and the fulfillment of working with other like-minded healthcare professionals, also rang through in what our other nurses told us.
“I’ve found that people in healthcare do what needs to be done, no matter what,” Jenessa said. “We adjust, improvise, learn, grow to meet the needs of our patients.
“There’s no other choice when you see a need and you know you are the person responsible to take care of that need in the most complete way possible. This may range from giving medication or taking someone’s hand as they pass from this world to the next.”
‘The People I Meet on Every Assignment… Become So Special to Me’
Continuity in the face of change, and crisis, is another theme that emerged in our discussions with our Clinicians of the Month — as is the appreciation for the affection and gratitude they receive from patients, families, and fellow caregivers.
“The best part of the day is joking with a patient and making them smile,” Jenessa told us. “Feeling a flow in your practice is also an amazing feeling. Flow meaning you are in the zone, doing your job well, giving exceptional patient care and managing your time productively.”
Eleschia W., CareerStaff LPN in Kentucky.
“Things constantly change, especially with our current crisis,” Eleschia said. “I’ve seen things done the old way and the new way. I’ve worked in facilities as a nurse that I once was an aid. I’ve been able to provide both care and treatment to some of my patients from years ago.”
Few can speak of those changes with the authority of Ellen Lawrence, who’s been a practicing nursing professional for 35 years. Having begun as a CNA and then becoming an LPN halfway through her career, she still cites the connection she makes with patients as the thing that keeps her going.
“The patients and helping families are my inspiration every day. The looks on their faces when you come in and they light up, it keeps you going!”
Ellen also told us about spending a special Nurses Week 2020 on her CareerStaff assignment in New Hampshire. “They brought me a T-shirt and made me feel like family,” she said. “The people I meet on every assignment really always become so special to me.”
“I am very encouraged and thankful for the immense support friends, family, and strangers have extended during the last months,” Jenessa told us about the outpouring of support for nurses in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think people always supported nurses and healthcare workers but the recent level of support gives you extra wind under your sails.”
She continued: “The meals churches would drop off, the boxes of goodies for our team from friends, the messages of support, all of it means a lot when you are digging deep during a crisis. It fills up your emotional reserves when you start feeling like they are getting empty.”
That support can be essential, whether for nurses working under dire conditions on the COVID-19 front lines or those who are just starting out, and who may be frustrated or uncertain about the choices they’ve made.
“So many of us have hard/bad experiences in our first nursing jobs,” Jenessa said. “Speaking from experience, don’t give up, don’t doubt yourself. Just move on and find your place. It’s worth it.”
‘There is Alaways More to Learn’
For Jenessa’s part, that commitment is shown not just in nursing work, but in charitable giving, too. Using her coffee shop as a base, she recently held a successful fundraiser to build a school in a rural community in Kumasi, Ghana.
“I was able to travel back and do my BSN final protect there and see the school completed and the children being fit for their uniforms,” she told us. ”I learned so much from the clinicians there and it was really wonderful to be able to give back to a community that had given me so much knowledge as a nurse.”
For nurses like these — motivated, passionate and eager to travel where they can best help others — the huge variety of job opportunities offered by CareerStaff are a way to help realize that dream, whether they hit the road or choose an assignment that’s close to home.
“The thing I love the most is there is always more to learn,” Eleschia told us. “I love the flexibility and availability to travel and pick up at my convenience. Everyone is helpful and always available.”
Interested in joining nurses like Ellen, Jenessa and Eleschia in America’s best nurse staffing network? We’ve got opportunities from coast to coast! Learn about the benefits of working a CareerStaff nursing job here, or find an opportunity now.