Heart Month, Cardiovascular Week Marked by Alumni Speaker at JCC

February 15, 2002

Students in the Nursing V Critical Care Nursing course at Johnston Community College learned about "The Nurse’s Role During a Cardiac Catheterization" from someone who once sat in their place, literally.

Vanessa Bridges of Clayton, RN CVS, with Wake Medical Center in Raleigh, is an alumnus of the JCC nursing program. She returned to campus last week for a visit that coincided with American Heart Month and Wake Med’s Cardiovascular Week to discuss her work in preoperative, intraoperative and post-operative patient care.

After graduating from JCC and earning her registered nurse’s license in June of 1998, Bridges began her career with Wake Med as a step-down nurse in the hospital’s Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Unit. She completed additional specialized training in the use of radiology equipment and imaging and cardiac diagnostic procedures to earn the designation of cardiovascular specialist.

Bridges said that on a typical day, doctors at Wake Med perform 30 to 40 cardiac catheterizations per day. It is her job to assist the physicians during these procedures and to maintain patient follow-up care.

It is also her job to encourage the retention of nurses in her unit. Although she works with nursing students within the hospital and teaches intradepartmental workshops at the hospital, this was her first visit back to JCC to speak to students.

As a nursing student, Bridges said that she was interested in three areas of nursing--geriatrics, medical/surgical and psychiatric. The cardiac area has given her the opportunity to be involved in all three.

"In cardiac care, you deal mostly with an older population. I get to work in medical/surgical and a cardiac event is a big event emotionally in a person’s life," she said.

The biggest thing Bridges said she wanted to leave the JCC students with last week was the message that a nurse should provide the best possible care to his or her patients. "You have to look at the whole picture," she said. "You’re all the patient has to rely on for care."

That’s also the most important lesson she learned at JCC. "The program gave me a strong sense of what my role was as a nurse," she said. "It gave me a strong foundation and a respect for the nursing profession. My instructors also emphasized that my education did not end at the college level, they encouraged me to continue to learn."

Like many community college students, Bridges did not attend college right out of high school. She began the JCC nursing program when she was 36 years old.

"My motivation was my children. I was a single parent, and I felt like I was in a rut. I knew I couldn’t provide everything I wanted them to have," she said. "I needed to make more money, and I wanted to set a good example for them."

Another lure to the JCC program was the fact the program allows students to take the exam to become a Licensed Practical Nurse after the first year of study. Upon passing the exam, as Bridges did, the student can work as an LPN while continuing the associate’s degree program.

"I wanted to work and get experience, so I worked on weekends," Bridges said. "I was able to learn from my peers on the job as well as in the classroom. It was a great opportunity for me."

February has been slated as American Heart Month by the American Heart Association. Bridges said that Wake Med also recognizes one week in February as Cardiovascular Week, celebrated this year as Feb. 11-15.