Call it the mother of all nursing jobs. Working in labor and delivery and neonatal ICU departments may be a front row seat for the beauty of childbirth. However, those opportunities don’t come without rigorous training and weighty responsibilities. We spoke with three nurses who each found their own paths to this exciting field.
Debra Alaniz, MSN, BSN, RN
Dekalb Medical Center
Early in her nursing career, Alaniz marched to her own drum, literally. After graduating from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan in 1984, she joined the United States Army. There she found herself working in labor and delivery as part of the Army Nurse Corps. Alaniz remained in the U.S. Armed Forces for 20 years before retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 2005.
Since then, Alaniz has been working as a clinical specialist for labor and delivery at Dekalb Medical Center’s North Decatur Campus. This means she’s responsible for helping educate and train the staff, work on quality improvement projects, and handle policies and procedures.
On working in labor and delivery:
“It’s such an exciting area, because it’s not just one area. Right now a lot of what I do is train nurses. …It’s not the same thing every day. You have to know how to do OR, so you have to be a surgical nurse and a recovery nurse. You have to know how to labor patients, and you really have to be an emergency room nurse, too. We have our own OB triage area, so all pregnant patients come right in to us. Just like the emergency department, you don’t know what’s going to walk in through the door. You have to be on your toes when you’re caring for patients. Things can change quickly, and deliveries happen fast. I think to work in this area you have to like that kind of excitement. What you started doing in the morning is probably not what you’ll be doing at the end of the day. You have to be flexible.”
On her job’s rewards:
“There are a lot of rewards in what we do. It’s such a special time for patients, and their whole family. And you as a labor nurse get to be a part of that with the family. The patient may not always remember your name when it’s all done, but they’ll remember you were there and how much help you were.”
How the Army prepared her for her current job:
“When you’re in the Army, family members aren’t always nearby. Most of the time it’s the patient and the baby’s father. So you really were the support for that patient. They were so dependent on you, and that’s how you learn to be that good support person for the mother in labor. The military really focuses on leadership, so it serves me well in my current position.”
Theresia Clarke, RN
Northside Hospital
Working with infants is a lifelong passion for Clarke. At the tender age of 15, she began as a nursing assistant at a hospital in Americus. Although she found herself nursing adults, she would often visit the nursery during breaks. Aware of Clarke’s fascination with infants, the nursery manager soon offered Clarke a spot in the department.
Eventually moving to Atlanta, Clarke immediately got a day-shift job at Northside. This enabled her to attend Kennesaw State University and become an RN. She’s remained at Northside for a whopping 37 years, garnering a reputation for classic professionalism. Today she’s the special care nursery discharge coordinator, where she coordinates the patients’ needs for discharge. According to Clarke, her career in the neonatal ICU still inspires her daily.
On what keeps her excited about her job 37 years later:
“It’s these babies. I don’t know how to explain this, but when I hold these babies in my arms, it’s like all is right with the world. When a mom hugs me and says, ‘thank you,’ that’s all I need. That’s what keeps me going. It’s just that simple. It doesn’t matter what I’m going through at home in my personal life. I try to keep my personal life and my work life separate. If I can do something for these moms and babies, and help make their day a little better, it makes my day great. I found that if I focus on the needs of others, then my needs are taken care of.”
On the challenges of NICU:
“The hardest part for me is to watch the struggles that these parents go through, and when we lose a baby. I’ve never gotten used to that. We have moms that are in the hospital for months. They lose their jobs, and being in the NICU is so expensive. It’s difficult looking at their struggles and not being able to do anything. So I just wrap my arms around them and cry with them.”
On her reputation of professionalism:
“It’s because of the way I was taught when I was in school. We had strict guidelines. It’s different now. If you act like a professional, you’ll be treated like a professional. I hear so many complaints from parents who hear the nurses talking about their personal lives, or they come in inappropriately dressed. I don’t like that. I want everyone to look professional. I want the hair back out of your face; I don’t want a lot of perfume on; and I want your personal life to be just that. When you’re on the floor or in the pods with the babies and their parents, that’s where I want your focus. Sometimes they call me old fashioned, but that’s OK. Sometimes being old fashioned is a good thing. (Laughs)”
Lourdes Samaniego-Yamin, RN
Emory University Midtown Hospital
During the mid-1970s in her native Philippines, Samaniego-Yamin had dreams of becoming an interior designer. Nursing was the furthest thing from her mind. Since her family couldn’t help her with the costly tuition of an interior design major, Samaniego-Yamin’s mother suggested nursing. After settling on a concentration, she soon found her caring nature made her a perfect fit for the field.
In 1977, Samaniego-Yamin graduated from Far Eastern University; she moved to America two years later. She’s spent the past 27 years at Emory, and plans on finishing her career in her current position as a charge nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit.
On the rewards and the challenges of NICU:
“Working in a NICU is both very rewarding and sometimes very depressing. Because of the improvements in the technology and science, we are saving a lot more babies now. The viability has come down to even 23 weeks. So there are joys and sadnesses. Even just 5 or 10 years ago, you couldn’t count on a 24-week-old baby to survive. But nowadays they can. It is nice to see them at the end of the year when we have the preemie party, and the preemie graduates come back. They often come back without any residuals of being premature.”
On her responsibilities:
“For the past four years, I’ve been in a leadership role. Prior to that I was a bedside nurse. I really enjoyed what I did before; putting in PICC lines, taking care of these tiny babies and so forth. So it was a different perspective, but if you’re a nurturing person, it doesn’t make any difference. You can do either role. Right now, I have to run the unit. I have to make sure all of the staff nurses are taken care of and that the morale is up. You have to be sure on a day-to-day basis that your unit is well staffed. That’s really very challenging, because sometimes you’re short on nurses. In this position, you have to have a good relationship with the staff. That is your lifeline.”
On what makes the perfect NICU nurse:
“You have to be nurturing. My staff calls me a mother hen, because I’m nurturing even to my co-workers. I bring food into work and feed them. (Laughs) Whatever I have, I share with them. That’s my nature. In nursing, you simply need to have the desire to take care of others.”
