HealthLinks Charleston July/August 2020

64 | www.CharlestonPhysicians.com | www.HealthLinksCharleston.com KIM LOWMILLER, RN As the patient care coordinator in the Emergency Department at Trident Medical Center, Kim Lowmiller thrives in a fast-paced environment. And, really, it is all she knows. She holds an associate degree in fire sci - ence from Western Iowa Tech and a BSN from the University of South Dakota. After college, she worked as a firefighter/para - medic in South Dakota. “I loved the emergency aspect of it,” she admitted. When she went back to school for nursing, she knew the ER was where she wanted to be. But it all started when she was 15 and wit- nessed her grandmother having a stroke. “I hated that I didn’t know what to do to help her,” Kim explained. She said her favorite part of working in the ER is the teamwork displayed among staff. “Trident Medical Center Emergency Department’s level of team- work rivals anything I have seen before. I truly feel so lucky to work with such an amazing team.” She advised new nurses to “be passionate about learning and just try to become a better nurse every day, and you will succeed.” TRERVOR PHAM, RN Trervor Pham said he has his wife to thank for encouraging him to become a nurse. “She happens to be an RN as well. She said I had the perfect personality for a nurse, so I gave it a chance.” Now in med-surge at the Ralph H. John- son VA Medical Center, he said he is glad he took that chance because, “nursing has been one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done.” He said he enjoys med-surge because he likes caring for veterans as they come out of complex surgeries. “Med-surge is also helping me to build upon my foundation as I work to critical care,” he said. He concluded: “Nursing school is tough and the job is demanding. There will be times that you may feel like giving up. If you persevere and stick with it, nursing will be one of the most rewarding things you ever do. Being able to say you made a difference in a patient’s life is beyond amazing.” AMBER RYAN, RN, BSN Amber Ryan remembers setting up a doctor’s office for her father, a stonemason, when he would return home with cuts and bruises after a hard day’s work. “I would clean him up and bandage his wounds,” she said. But as a freshman in college, she started taking classes in early childhood education. “I’ll admit guts and gore deterred me from becoming a nurse at first,” she explained. When her grandfather got sick, she said she always remembered how his face lit up when he spoke about the nurses who made his hospital stays better. “I knew that I wanted to do this for others. I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives the way those nurses did for my grand- pa,” she explained. She is now working in the pediatric intensive care unit at the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital. Her advice to aspiring nurses: “Make the most of every experi- ence, and follow your own path to becoming a nurse. I work with so many health care professionals in different fields that feel discour - aged they aren’t where they expected themselves to be. We all get there eventually, so use every step along the way as an experience to grow from.” T H E P U L S E O N CHARLESTON NURSES KELLY SMITH, RN For 10 years, Kelly Smith worked at Cy- press Gardens as an animal care specialist/ zookeeper. “I never knew I wanted to be a nurse. We lived on a farm and my mom was a rehabber for sick, orphaned and injured animals of all kinds, from snakes to squirrels. I was born, or so I thought, to be in the biology field and take care of animals for the rest of my life.” She said she heard her calling when her grandfather died of pros- tate cancer. She explained: “We had no nurses in the family, no one to help him understand his options. He died from what is usually a slow growing cancer that is managed long-term. I heard God loud and clear on that day. Be a nurse, he said.” She did not immediately answer the call, but, at the urging of some of her friends, she went back to school. “During my oncology rotation, I felt a pull like never before and never looked back,” she said. She now works as an oncology nurse at Trident Medical Center. “I work with some of the best people I know. Teamwork, hard work and strong shoulders for the tough times are what I get every day,” Kelly said. HealthLinks Charleston wants to recognize nurses as the backbone of our medical community and thank them for all their efforts!