Evanston RoundTable, May 7, 2025
National Nurses Week is a good time to honor our hospital caregivers
We couldn’t get by without nurses. They’ve been called “the superheroes of healthcare” who are “irreplaceable … in keeping the nation healthy and thriving.” And says former President Barack Obama, “America’s nurses are the beating heart of our medical system.”
In honor of National Nurses Week May 6 through 12, and to get a sense of their enormous contributions to protecting and saving lives, I interviewed nurses at Evanston Hospital and Saint Francis Hospital.
At Evanston Hospital, located at 2650 Ridge Ave., there are some 1,500 registered nurses. One of them is Dana Jackson, a 20-year veteran nurse, who works with chronic lung disease patients dealing with such serious illnesses as pulmonary fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the hospital’s Pulmonary Medical Group.
Jackson said she feels proud of the work performed by her team — five registered nurses, three nurse practitioners and 21 physicians — helping seriously ill patients. There are frustrations of course, chief of which is the constant negotiation with insurance carriers about coverage of needed medications and medical equipment such as ventilators and oxygen. “There are a lot of hoops to jump through” she said. “If the patients have equipment problems, we become the middlemen between them and the insurance companies. We try to advocate for the patients.”
Most of the time she said she connects with patients on the phone or through the hospital portal, NorthShoreConnect.
The “best” aspect of her job, she said, is when she can help patients get what they need to feel better.
“We definitely experience stress, exhaustion and burnout, but at the end of the day what makes it all worthwhile is that we serve people. Ultimately we just want to help, that’s what nursing is about.” Jackson has three children, ages 10, 13 and 17, and she laughed that at this point “none of them are interested in nursing.”
She herself grew interested during her third year of college, when she had a part-time job at a health club where a number of nurses trained. “We got to talking and they said I should be a nurse. They must have sensed something, I guess, so I changed my major and found out they were right: it was definitely the right path for me.”
“Not all angels have wings. Some have scrubs.” — Unknown
Same with Lauren Cote, a nurse in Evanston Hospital’s Intensive Care unit, where she’s worked for 30 years. “I started at the hospital 33 years ago in the telemetry unit, just down the hall from the ICU, and saw all the action there, and I thought, ‘That’s where I want to be!’”
She said the best thing about the job is “using my clinical skills to work in a collaborative way to take care of people. It’s an honor and a privilege to have this role. There’s a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment.”
Cote mentioned the benefit of her long experience, what she called “the predictive factor: my gut is telling me something,” which can enable her to accurately and quickly diagnose patient symptoms. She says she constantly supplements her skill set by attending lectures and conferences. She’s the author or co-author of five research articles in prestigious medical publications, such as The Journal of Vascular Surgery.
“Now I’m one of the old gals on the unit,” she joked. “I’m working with nurses my children’s age.”
She felt it was possible her younger colleagues might not have the same level of emotional intensity that she and her older nurse teammates did. “I’d be driving home crying … It’s a different generation, they have a different work ethic.” She said today’s younger nurses often work just a few years and then move on to get advanced degrees. “There’s just a handful with more than 10 years’ experience here.”
Nevertheless, she characterized the team of about 40 nurses at the hospital’s Intensive Care unit as “a terrific group of people. We’re a family for sure.”
But Intensive Care is “not for everyone,” she said. ICU nurses work 12-hour shifts, which can be stressful and exhausting. And the 16-bed unit handles some of the most seriously ill patients in the hospital, from neurosurgery and heart problems to colon resections and those on a ventilator.
“When I tell people I’m working with a 40-year-old brain cancer patient, they ask, ‘How can you do that all day?’ I tell them it’s an honor and a privilege to help someone who’s so ill.”
“It’s a hard job,” she admitted. “We work our behinds off. And patients and families are not always at their best” with stress and worry. “So we have to be at our best.”
To that end she cited as an example a prosaic act of kindness: shaving a patient. “It’s not therapeutic but the patient feels better and so does the family. They think, ‘Wow, they’re doing a great job here.’”
“People have a calling,” Cote said. “Mine is to be a caregiver, a health care provider.”
“When you’re a nurse, you know that every day you will touch a life or a life will touch yours.” — Unknown
Nicole Fernandez is chief nursing officer at Endeavor Health and president of Highland Park Hospital. She said even though she’s an administrator, “I like to round on the patient care units as much as I can, to visit with the team members and staff. It’s the best part of my job: talking with nurses and patients. It’s a joy and privilege to work with these people, to impact a patient’s life. Nurses have the ability to do that, and they do it exceptionally well.”
She said the worst part of her job is watching a terminally ill patient sliding toward the end. “Some things are out of our control. The situation is the situation. It’s very hard for us.”
Fernandez’ family is dedicated to health care. Her husband is an orthopedic surgeon at Skokie Hospital, and their youngest son is a pre-med at Northeastern University in Boston. “We always instilled in our children service to others.”
“Save one life, you’re a hero. Save 100 lives, you’re a nurse.” — Unknown
At Saint Francis Hospital, Director of Nursing Annmarie McDonagh arranged for me to speak by phone with a handful of other nurses, all of whom agreed they chose the hospital for the strong family feeling among the 300 or so nurses there. “We have so many nurses with 20 or more years here, it’s unusual and shows how everyone is very close,” McDonagh said. She pointed out that the hospital rating system Leapfrog currently gives Saint Francis top rating for patient safety and health outcomes, and the hospital is “on track to obtaining” the prestigious Magnet Recognition Program from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. “These are nurses practicing at the top of their license,” she said.
McDonagh has been a nurse 37 years, and in June she’ll celebrate her third anniversary at Saint Francis. She said she came to the hospital at 355 Ridge Ave. because of Rosenda M. Barrera, the chief nursing officer and interim chief executive officer. “We call her a unicorn,” McDonagh said of Barrera. “She’s very hands on; she walks the path alongside the nurses. She’s a nurse’s nurse.”
Joanne Mahoney, director of inpatient, acute care and critical care nursing, who’s been in the field more than three decades, said, “Even after being in the profession this many years, and even though I’m no longer a bedside nurse, I still believe I make a difference in the lives of the people I serve, as do all the nurses here. Our nurses at Saint Francis, as well as nurses everywhere, are at the true heart of health care.”
Rebecca Wile has been at Saint Francis a year-and-a-half after 18 years as a nurse in California. “I always wanted to work somewhere that put nurses first, where we’re more like family. Everyone here knows your name, I’ve never seen such heart.”
Emily Isakson is new to the hospital, having started last month. She said she wanted to work at a Level I Trauma Center. “I’ve always heard good reviews for Saint Francis. There are so many nurses with more than 20 years’ experience here. That kind of retention isn’t common: it shows everyone is very close.”
Monica Torres is another newbie, having also started last month. “I wanted a place where I felt supported as a nurse. The first time I walked in the door I felt so welcome. It’s a very supportive environment.”
To show its support, Saint Francis held its annual Salute to Nurses day on May 5, featuring area first responders — fire, police and EMS teams — along with physician staff and hospital leadership. Numerous fire, ambulance and law enforcement vehicles and apparatus were on hand.
Saint Francis’ Mahoney pointed out that the Gallup Poll’s annual survey of most trusted professions in 2024 again ranked nursing at the top of the list. “Nurses have earned the highest rating in every year but one since Gallup added them to the annual survey in 1999,” the polling firm pointed out. “The exception was 2001, when firefighters — included only that year — earned a record 90% trust rating after their heroism in responding to the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers.”
Given the public’s distrust of most professions these days, that says volumes about the high esteem in which nurses are held.
“A nurse is one who opens the eyes of a newborn and gently closes the eyes of a dying man. It is indeed a high blessing to be the first and last to witness the beginning and end of life.” — Unknown