Like a family
Assistant manager Jamie Wiggs, R.N., B.S.N., is another 10-year veteran of the
Trauma Center. “Working here means teamwork, cohesion, and pride in the job we’re doing,” she said. “It is nice to go home in the afternoon and know that you’ve done everything you can for your patient and for their family.”
Wiggs says that staff of the Trauma Center can’t continue to do the job without some levity from time to time. “You can’t do this job day in and day out and not have fun with the people who you work
with because with all the tragedy that goes on if you don’t like who you’re working with, and if you can’t cut up and joke around to some extent, you can’t make it from one day to the next,” she said. “This job is hard to do on a good day, but near impossible on a bad day. But it’s a great place to work and I feel blessed.”
Wiggs recalls caring for an Amish man who suffered a very serious facial
laceration from a saw blade. “These folks had never been to a big hospital. They were just blown away by
everything. But they’ve actually come back to visit us several times to show us how he’s doing and to thank us,” she said.
Wiggs remains close to Kaitlyn Lasitter and her parents. Lasitter is one of VUMC’s more famous trauma patients in recent years. She is the teenager who had both
feet severed in a tragic Kentucky theme park accident in 2007. VUMC surgeons
were able to successfully reattach one of Kaitlyn’s feet.
“She came back to visit the unit a couple of months ago. No one could believe how
well she is doing,” she said. “She walked onto the unit, took a spin, and no one could believe it.”
Unit clerk Joyce Stallworth is another 10-year veteran who gets particular
satisfaction when patients recover and return to visit.
“It doesn’t seem like 10 years. It’s been great. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I enjoy getting to know the families and watching
the patients come back made up and looking like new,” she said. “There have been a lot of sad moments from the ones who didn’t make it, but the ones who come back to visit make up for it. It’s like a family up here. I look forward to coming to work every morning.”
Sarah Hutchison, B.S.N., C.C.R.N., is the unit’s manager. She has been in this role since four months after the unit opened in
1998. Managing 108 nurses and 42 staff members on one of the hospital’s busiest units is a huge responsibility.
“It’s challenging. It’s exciting. I’ve been able to see a lot of miracle cases at the same time I’m continuing to work on system problems because we outgrew the unit’s physical space at a very early stage. This issue and issues with family
support have been my biggest concerns,” she said. “But it’s been very fulfilling.”
Hutchison says that nearly doubling patient volume within the same physical
space has stressed the system, but the staff has risen to the challenge.
“That’s where we pride ourselves, because with Dr. Morris’ leadership we’ve come up with a great way to efficiently care for more patients,” she said. “Overall, I think we have done a good job and I think the patients’ survival outcomes and feedback from patients’ families have shown this.”
