Her private {and professional} experiences have made her the individual she is. Joan Ferres-Rodriguez is embracing these experiences in life and in her profession with IU Well being.
By IU Well being Senior Journalist, T.J. Banes, tfender1@iuhealth.org
She’s trustworthy as she displays on her previous and current. Joan Ferres-Rodriguez says she by no means actually thought rather a lot concerning the path that introduced her the place she is now – together with a couple of challenges – till she was requested.
She simply did it.
What she did was begin out as a pediatric intensive care volunteer with IU Well being 15 years in the past. She was taking shifts at Methodist Hospital when she landed her first job working within the hospital cafeteria. Two years later she transitioned to a lab technician at IU Pathology lab. After a yr, she started working as a scholar nurse on the post-partum and supply flooring at College Hospital.
On the similar time, she obtained her language interpretation license and served as a medical interpreter for Spanish talking sufferers. All of the whereas she was working towards her nursing diploma.
When she accomplished her boards, she landed her first nursing job within the grownup medical surgical unit. After spending 5 years working in neo natal intensive care at one other hospital she returned to IU Well being. That was in 2019 at first of the pandemic and Ferres-Rodriguez labored nights as a distant affected person monitoring nurse. A yr in the past she took on the function of program coordinator whereas persevering with to work nights. She lately turned supervisor for IU Well being’s Hospital at House and Tele-Well being program – a part of IU Well being’s house care system.
The profession climb hasn’t all the time been easy. She had her first daughter halfway by nursing faculty and went from a full-time scholar to a part-time scholar. At one level she needed to petition her college to proceed with the nursing program.
“I walked round campus once I was pregnant, and it was freezing chilly. Then once I had my daughter, I’d bundle her up and take her to lessons with me,” mentioned Ferres-Rodriguez, 34. That daughter is now 11, and she or he has a second daughter who’s 5. She met her boyfriend whereas working at IU Well being West. They’ve been collectively for six years.
“At Methodist there was a pc lab for workers. On my breaks I’d appeared up tuition reimbursement and different sources to assist me keep on the right track,” mentioned Ferres-Rodriguez.
A 2005 graduate of Brownsburg Excessive Faculty, Ferres-Rodriguez knew early on that she wished to grow to be a nurse.
“I made a decision to get my toe within the water as a volunteer. I took the espresso cart round, handed out books and talked to sufferers. I bought to listen to quite a lot of nice tales from the grownup sufferers. After I moved into peds ICU my eyes had been actually opened. It may be exhausting,” mentioned Ferres-Rodriguez.
An enormous affect on her drive to finish her diploma and excel in her profession was her dad and mom. They had been additionally her biggest help.
Ferres-Rodriguez was born in Puerto Rico and her dad and mom moved to the States when she was three. Her father labored as an airline mechanic and by the point Ferres-Rodriguez was in center faculty he was an FAA airline inspector.
“He labored exhausting and taught me that no matter is put in your palms to do, you need to do it to one of the best of your capacity,” mentioned Ferres-Rodriguez, who has a sister three years youthful.
Two years in the past January, Ferres-Rodriguez misplaced her mom who was 55. She died of issues from Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“My mother had a drive to make some type of impression in folks’s lives. She made sacrifices for that drive. After we moved right here she took what she had and poured into folks’s lives,” mentioned Ferres-Rodriguez. Like her daughter, Ferres-Rodriguez’s mom began her profession working in a cafeteria.
“She was working at a college and since she was bilingual she started serving to with English as a Second Language. That compassion for others was particularly evident for these from totally different languages and cultures. She knew she was just one individual however she may make an impression,” mentioned Ferres-Rodriguez.
When her mom turned ailing, Ferres-Rodriguez labored nights in neo-natal intensive care to assist present take care of her mom in the course of the day.
“After she handed, I labored the evening shift in NICU however the hospital setting started to meet up with me. It triggered so many issues as a result of that’s the place we misplaced her,” mentioned Ferres-Rodriguez. “I knew there have been many alternatives as a nurse so I started to give attention to administration,” she mentioned. And because the world was dealing with a pandemic, that flexibility served her properly.
“Bedside care completely ready me for the place I’m now. As a workforce lead, I do know the place they’re coming from, I’ve completed the work they’re doing and it’s essential for me to be an advocate and in addition soar in when wanted,” mentioned Ferres-Rodriguez.
Overseeing the digital care of sufferers entails monitoring vitals, and educating them to handle their very own care to stop hospital readmission.
It’s additionally essential to Ferres-Rodriguez to teach her fellow employees from a standpoint of her tradition.
“We regularly have sufferers who reply ‘sure’ to questions they could not likely perceive as a result of in our tradition we don’t wish to be a trouble and inconvenience to anybody,” mentioned Ferres-Rodriguez. “I attempt to educate fellow employees to make use of open-ended questions to grasp the affected person’s wants and to dig slightly deeper.”
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