Nancy Fischer uses her clinical knowledge and teaching and leadership skills daily in her job as a charge nurse at WellStar Kennestone Hospital’s step-down open-heart unit. But she considers her most important role to be giving patients the time that they need.

When nurses alerted her that  a mentally challenged heart patient was being difficult, Fischer went to see him. As the mother of a high-functioning child who has Asperger’s syndrome, she knew that he needed more help than most patients.

“He was by himself and refusing to let the nurses give him oxygen or to have surgery,” said Fischer, 56. “I took some time with him and explained why he needed surgery. He had a sister-in-law who helped him some, but she never came to visit him in the hospital. We became friends and as long as I was there, or the nurses told him that (I) would want him to do this, he allowed them to care for him.”

“Knowing that he had mental disadvantages, Nancy took it upon herself to educate him and make him at ease with surgery. Nancy was with him along the way, including his recuperation,” said Paola Buitrago, a manager in the step-down unit.

Fischer held the man’s hand when he went into surgery, brought him new clothes and personal supplies afterward, and gave him her phone number when he went home.

“He ended up recuperating very well and calling me to tell me how much Nancy had changed his life and how thankful he was for a nurse like Nancy,” said Buitrago, who nominated Fischer.

Fischer said she empathizes with every patient who goes into surgery. “You know it could be you or someone you love. No one wants to be alone and everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity.”

A nurse for 36 years, Fischer considers herself lucky to have found her calling early. When she was a teenager, she answered a newspaper ad to help in a hospital kitchen  and ended up taking food to patients.

“No one had ever been a nurse in my family, but I was fascinated by the IVs and watching what nurses did,” she said.

Fischer completed a health services program when she was in high school and graduated as a nursing assistant. Eighteen months later, she graduated with an associate degree in nursing from a community college. Today,  Fischer is back in school and working toward a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

“Everything just fell into place with my nursing career,” Fischer said. “I’ve always had work and it’s always been satisfying. I’ve worked in critical care, mostly in management roles, which allows me to stay hands-on at the bedside and care for nurses, too.

“Every day is unique. I know what’s going on with every nurse and the patients, and if there’s a problem I do what I can to fix it. Taking time to help others is what nurses do.”