Curtain Calls
RNs channel their energies to perform well on and off duty

By Pamela Stone
August 25, 2003

A hush fell over the audience as the fiery redhead performed a duet with singer Neil Sedaka. As her smooth, honey-toned voice filled the concert hall, she and the singer harmonized on his hit song, "Should've Never Let You Go." After their performance, the audience broke into wild applause and gave a standing ovation.

At the concert's end, the singer, Heather Paterson, RN, CCRN, who works at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, found a stretch limousine awaiting her, parked outside her dressing room … a perfect ending to a Cinderella evening.

But Paterson takes it all in stride.

Last spring, she won a local radio contest to audition for composer/musician Sedaka, known for his hits "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" and "Calendar Girl." She beat out 200 candidates.

While performing, Paterson never doubted her ability. "While I'm singing, nothing else matters," she said. "It consumes me-I'm surrounded by the song."

Paterson's no-nonsense approach to singing carries over to nursing. As she describes her day job, it's easy to recognize her strongest quality: She doesn't scare easily.

A clinical nurse educator in critical care services, she uses the same determination and drive training up to 70 nurses a year. Since 1999, she and her team of RNs have conducted annual nursing internships for which they use classroom lectures, mentoring and bedside teaching to prepare nurses to work in critical care.

As a nurse educator, she facilitates the educational process, organizing the material and conducting lectures. Two respiratory therapists and one clinical tech educator join her.

When newly graduated nurses enter the ICU unit at Children's, Paterson said, they must "resolve a conflict of ideals they learned in nursing school, and face the reality of the job." To help them through this transition, her staff provides "Mentor Madness," in which recruits meet with more experienced nurses regularly. The hospital ministers of pastoral care also help the nurses adapt to their new role.

She points out that the emotional challenge of working with extremely sick children is challenging. Plus, the job is technically demanding, as well as physically and intellectually stressful. "My job is to impart knowledge, making sure nurses are receiving and applying the information they need to care for the child appropriately."

How does Paterson balance her musical and nursing career?

"I love the flexibility of nursing," she said. "In nursing, you can do anything. You can be a school nurse, a hospital nurse or teach nursing at a university. You can have a family, travel-or pursue another career."

In 1977, she graduated with a bachelor's of music degree at Southern Methodist University. Paterson taught voice lessons in the Dallas Independent School District Schools and performed at night. Five years later, her mother became ill with cancer, and she realized she needed a more secure career. So she chose nursing.

"I thought I'd go to work and come home, and not be interested in my day job," Paterson said. "But I fell in love with nursing."

She points out that nursing provides a flexible schedule, allowing her to sing in the evenings. "As long as I put in 40 hours a week, I can arrange my hours accordingly."

Paterson is the lead singer in a small jazz group, the Straight Ahead Jazz Quartet, in which her husband plays the saxophone. The group performs for clubs, restaurants and weddings throughout the Dallas metropolis.

But that's not all. Paterson also is working on her graduate degree in nursing one day a week. To her, nursing provides balance to a busy lifestyle and career, providing stability and freedom. And which career does she want the most? According to Paterson, she doesn't have to choose. She has it all.

Gridiron fame

Kimberly Lawrence, RN, is another example of a nurse with a showbiz background. Lawrence began dancing when she was 8. In 1998, she entered nursing school with a dual career. Each day, she attended school and, most evenings, she rehearsed with her squad: the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

"Being a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader was prestigious and a dream of mine since I was 5 years old," Lawrence said. Although cheerleading was physically rigorous, it prepared her for nursing. "Cheering before a crowd of 65,000 people makes you realize you can do anything."

Balancing a nursing career with cheerleading was challenging, though. In addition to nursing, Lawrence attended cheerleading rehearsals five times a week, games each weekend and made public appearances with little pay. But the occupation was rewarding, especially when her patients found out about her "second job."

"When the children discovered I was a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, their faces lit up with bright smiles," said Lawrence, who remembers her patients joining her and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in a holiday parade.

"That was one of my greatest Christmas gifts," she said.

Lawrence uses her same "cheerleading" communication and performance skills as a nurse at the Center for Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Children's Medical Center. A team leader of the GI lab (gastrointestinal), she creates a feeling of trust and camaraderie among her staff of 12 RNs and their clinical support. In addition, she assists physicians in endoscopy procedures, such as an EGD, a colonoscopy, liver biopsy, DH probe placement and rectal section biopsy.

Lawrence also instructs parents in the area of procedural teaching and sedation education. "It's important for parents to understand and be aware of what their child is going through," she said. "I believe that knowledge decreases anxiety."

A natural go-getter, Lawrence is drawn to the intensity and complexity of GI disorders.

"The treatment interests me," she said. In her practice, she works with young people, from birth to age 20, who exhibit digestive disorders affecting the pancreas, stomach, esophagus, small intestine, colon, liver and spleen. "Each patient is different, depending on their developmental level," she said. "In my work, nothing stays the same."

Although no longer a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, Lawrence continues to seek challenges in life. This fall, she will pursue an MBA degree, so she can become a nurse administrator.

A marathon runner, Lawrence never lets hers dreams die. Her latest goal is to join the Rockettes, the famous dance team in New York City. How will she achieve this?

"I'll move to New York and work as a nurse-with the nursing shortage, it should be easy," she said, laughing.