From the time she was a teenager, Victoria Inouye wanted to be a nurse. When she was 15, Inouye and some friends signed up to be candy stripers at what was then called DeKalb General Hospital.
“We did our time on the flower carts,” said Inouye with a laugh. “But they also allowed us to help in the nursing home unit. We put patients in wheelchairs and took them outside to the park in front of the hospital and visited with them. There was one lady I fell in love with, and I so enjoyed spending time with her that it made me determined to be a nurse.”
In 1993, Inouye, a native of Clarkston, graduated from Georgia State University’s nursing school and became the first in her family to enter the medical field. Her first job took her back to DeKalb General until 2000.
“I have been a jack-of-all-trades in nursing,” she said. “I started out on a general med-surg unit and stayed at DeKalb until I transferred to be closer to home in Griffin. So I ended up at Southern Regional Medical Center and wound up going into critical care there about five years ago.”
That position put Inouye in the right place at the right time when a critically ill, deaf patient on a ventilator needed her husband to make medical decisions for her.
“He was also deaf and couldn’t communicate,” Inouye said. “But we had to find a way so he could make decisions for his wife. I’ve worked with several patients who are deaf-mutes, so I knew I had to make arrangements for the doctors to come when the communicator was there.”
Inouye also relied on her personal experiences to help.
“My daughter was born nine years ago with a speech language processing disorder,” Inouye said. “She didn’t say 'Mama’ until she was 3. I know if she gets really excited, it’s hard to understand her.”
That personal touch impressed Inouye’s colleague Teresa Hollowell.
“Vicky knows the frustration of not being able to communicate with the one you love,” she wrote in her nomination. “Her empathy for this particular family member was immeasurable. Vicky spent a great deal of time, finding an interpreter to come in and explain to the husband what was going on with his wife. She scheduled meetings with physicians, making sure an interpreter was always present to explain what was happening, and offering reassurance.
“The patient made a full recovery. The husband survived the ordeal and an entire team of medical professionals was educated in the importance of clear communication with all patients.”
Making those sorts of breakthroughs is just one part of her calling, Inouye said.
“I’m definitely a bedside nurse; I like my hands-on time with patients,” she said. “When people come in here who are so sick that we can’t imagine them ever walking out of the hospital and they do, then I know I’m doing what God wants me to do. I feel like I’m really being useful.”
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