National Nurses Week – Our Indispensable Heroes

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Nurses are resilient – we make it work – we’ll figure out how to get whatever the patient needs.
— Glen Au, RN
cardiac ICU nurse, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

This week is National Nurses Week and we are pleased to shout from the rooftops – our nurses are indispensable! The ultimate team players, nurses help develop a plan of care, working collaboratively with physicians, therapists, the patient and family, and other team members – always focused on treating illness and improving a child’s quality of life.

We were excited to hear nurses Mary and Glen reflect on their first experiences on a Heart to Heart mission during our recent interviews with them. Both nurses traveled with us to northern Mexico in December 2018, to a hospital where open heart surgery had never been performed on a child before. Physicians and nurses there are desperate to develop a pediatric heart program to save the babies and children born with heart defects in their community.

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Mary Zanobini, MSN, RN, NP-C, PA-C – The youngest of six children, Mary was raised by one of the first physicians to work in the South Lake Tahoe area of California. She has been a nurse for 30 years, and a nurse practitioner for 10. For the last nine years, Mary has played an important role on UC Davis Medical Center's pediatric heart team.

Glen Au, RN – Originally from Newfoundland, Canada, Glen studied and worked in Toronto before making his way to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota where he has been working for 20 years. Glen provides direct patient care in the cardiac catheterization lab as well as in the cardiovascular ICU. He has also worked as a critical care nurse educator.

Q: Can you tell us why you volunteer?

Mary: For those called to nursing, there is an innate desire to help whenever and wherever we can; it’s what we do naturally. Having the skills to help the sick and to teach others who are learning to nurse is a great feeling.

Glen: I truly think that it’s important to do volunteer work once you’ve acquired skills and expertise. There are so many countries that aren’t in the position we are in – we need to help them so their children’s lives can be saved.

Torreon, Mexico Nurse Mary Zanobini with Heart to Heart’s first surgical patient in Mexico, six-year-old Alejandro and his grandmother. See our video about Alejandro here.

Torreon, Mexico Nurse Mary Zanobini with Heart to Heart’s first surgical patient in Mexico, six-year-old Alejandro and his grandmother. See our video about Alejandro here.

Q: And why do you volunteer for Heart to Heart specifically? 

Mary: I LOVE the whole concept of focusing on training and educating a developing team – as opposed to flying in and doing a mission just to do a mission. I’ve never seen another mission organized by that principle. Before I volunteered, I was searching for some mission work to do and was excited in general. With Heart to Heart the objective is to leave behind a team that can carry on themselves – as an educator, that really resonates with me.

Glen: A colleague of mine, that I love working with invited me to join.

Q: Was there a particular moment on our surgical-educational mission in Torreon that impacted you?

Mary: Our first surgical patient was a little boy named Alejandro. When he was ready to leave the hospital, I was so worried about him. I just knew that the six-year-old was very likely going to go out and play and get dirty, like all six-year-olds do. I felt compelled to talk to the local nurses about the risk that would pose to Alejandro. Going through that process led to a realization of just how little the local nurses knew about post-op heart care, how much they had already learned while our team was on the ground, and how eager they were to learn how to improve patient care. Working with the nurses and seeing their growth throughout the trip was a great “Heart to Heart moment” for me.

Q: Is there anything you learned on the trip that you took home with you?

Mary: No matter where you are – in a state-of-the-art hospital at home or in an evolving hospital in rural Mexico – people, parents, and patients have the same expectations. Everyone wants a great outcome – they want their child to leave the hospital, go home and be healthy, be okay. That hope is universal, regardless of what language anyone is speaking. Speaking of language, clear communication is essential: communication is so important, repeat back to me what you understand, and clarify.

Glen: I think the most important thing I learned on the trip is that even though I live in a very modern, advanced, technical world, there is so much to learn from other nurses in other places around the world. I can guarantee you that there is something ingenious to learn from nurses in less developed countries. Find a solution, that’s what it comes down to. It wasn’t me telling them what to do, it was us working together to come up with ideas to meet the urgent challenges right in front of us. We all high five’d each other the night we resuscitated a baby that coded. I taught them to do high fives. We succeeded together. There’s always something to learn. Kind of like MacGyver – figuring out how to manage any situation with whatever tools are available.

Q: What do you think about Heart to Heart’s teaching and training component?

Mary: I think it’s been incredibly successful; Heart to Heart does an incredible job picking the players. We had success for each of our patients.

Glen: One of the challenges when entering a foreign hospital, especially when you come from a more medically advanced country, is getting buy-in. Team-building is so critical. When challenged late in the night, when we were all so exhausted, it came down to us appreciating one another's experience and knowledge. I am not the main force of anything, I know what I know, and what the local nurses know is just as important, particularly in their environment. Just because I have advanced medical knowledge doesn’t mean it’ll help the child in front of us who we need to treat. I was happy to show my gratitude for their willingness to collaborate with me in the ICU while treating the children. We were a great team at night. The most important thing is developing teamwork – to be able to listen to how they do it and imagine, with no resentment, how and where you fit in.

Q: Any other thoughts you’d like to share?

Mary: Many of us arrived on different airplanes, but once we hit the ground in Mexico, we all came together. When you come together on a mission like this, it’s because you know that you’re doing something so important, and that it involves many risks. The mission was so well orchestrated, especially considering that it took place in a hospital that had never performed open heart surgery on a child before. Heart to Heart is so careful about putting these things together.

Glen: I learned a lot about the processes that need to be put in place for all the people who are part of a Heart to Heart mission. And about all the decisions that need to be made. There are curveballs, nothing is totally predictable. I really appreciated the role of Heart to Heart leadership and their anticipation of the possible curveballs heading our way.

Nurses play critical roles on our care teams – we could not perform the work we do without them.
— Gary W. Raff, MD
pediatric cardiac surgeon, UC Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA
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