Being a nurse for more than seven years, the last four in labor and delivery, Samantha Aleman experiences the highs and lows with her patients. Most often that’s the excitement of a new life but occasionally it’s the grief that comes with loss. “I’m part of their story and in the moment with them. Whatever the emotion, we experience it together,” she said.
Aleman is an advocate for her patients, who sometimes don’t know what to expect or understand all that is going on around them. She says compassion, understanding and patience are what has enabled her to become what Memorial Regional Hospital Nursing Director Jane McCarthy describes as “the essence of a nurse, caring for patients and families as if they were her own.”
It was Aleman’s own experience of having a child that helped her become the nurse she is today. Being the patient instead of the caregiver reinforced how important empathy and compassion were, especially in situations where babies are born prematurely or there are emergency circumstances surrounding the birth.
