Nurse on the Move: Annie Lewis O’Connor

Nursing “brought out a part of me that I didn’t know was there.” Annie Lewis O’Connor PhD, NP-BC, MPH, FAAN never planned to turn out to be a nurse. She didn’t even know if she could handle the blood. However, when she became a single mother at a really young age, a social employee gave her the chance to find a brand new side of herself. O’Connor was capable of shadow nurses and saw “the human, caring side of what people do when others are sick. I felt prefer it brought out an element of me that I didn’t really know I had. I feel being a brand new mom has also brought out that caring side of me.”

Today, O’Connor has developed this side of herself into an influential profession. He holds teaching positions at Harvard Medical School and Boston College. She earned a master’s degree in nursing from Simmons College in Boston, a master’s degree in public health from Boston University, and a doctorate from Boston College. Currently, she serves because the founder and director of CARE Clinic (Coordinated Approach to Recovery and Empowerment) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Specializing in forensic nursing, maternal and child care, pediatrics and girls’s health, O’Connor cares for victims of domestic and sexual violence, human trafficking and gender-based violence. She also serves on the magazine’s editorial board, making her the right nurse on the move Forensic Nurses Week.

Career is essentially based on travel. I consider that after I went to nursing school, it was a calling of sorts. Today it’s an ideal job, career and business. When I began, it didn’t feel like a business, and that is neither good nor bad. What I hope to convey is that individuals won’t ever lose sight of the distinction and privilege of caring for people at essentially the most vulnerable time of their lives, once they are lying in a hospital bed. I do that each day with young nurses within the clinic where I work. I like that I’m at some extent in my profession where I actually feel like I’m “giving it my all.” I don’t desire anyone to feel like nursing is just an excellent job. It goes much deeper than that and I attempt to model that for the subsequent generation of nurses.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital gave me the chance to develop this clinic; I could not have done it without the support of this administration. This was done through dialogue and collecting statistics about my concerns about victims of intentional violence. These patients are unique in some ways. My research, published in , shows that many patients who come to the emergency department (ED) have just experienced a traumatic event and are given a packet of data to navigate through. It’s a multitude; they do not know who to call first.

I desired to create a complementary therapy for these patients under CARE that will turn out to be a national model. Within 48 hours, the victim, along with his or her consent, will receive an SMS from us. We provide phones in the event that they haven’t got them. Approximately 98% of victims we follow conform to follow-up visits, and our ability to contact patients has increased from 27% to 91%.

We also conduct consultations with hospitalized patients. For example, they’re admitted for reasons unrelated to their stay and reveal violence and trauma during their stay. This week alone I had six hospital consultations. I even have two victims of human trafficking who got here to us due to asthma and diabetes. We teach nurses find out how to provide trauma-informed look after other issues they experience.

I might also wish to mention that I invited 14 survivors to turn out to be my patient advisors and provides our clinic its name. When suggestions come from survivors themselves, the policies and procedures we develop are rather more relevant and meaningful.

People want the domestic violence detection tool we have had for thirty years. But that hasn’t transitioned well into actual health care. I feel we’d like to have an actual conversation with these patients about their relationships and concentrate to them. When I ask a story, I search for warning signs, corresponding to a partner who doesn’t need to break up, or a young girl who comes with an older man. You need to seek out out what these flags are after which discuss with the patient. You don’t desire to walk in and immediately say, “Have you been punched, kicked or punched? Did your partner force you to have sex while you didn’t need to? The right approach to ask an issue is to ask after you’ve made contact with the patient: “What do you want about your partner or your job? What don’t you want about it? Tell me three belongings you would change in case you could. Next thing , they’re telling you their whole story. I really realize that this affects one in 4 women. People are at all times surprised by this, however the statistics are pretty solid.

The biggest challenge really is mental health issues or substance abuse. If you take a look at homeless women, women with mental health issues or substance abuse issues, you’re thinking that of it as an onion. You start peeling the onion to resolve it, where you discover that there’s a lifetime of exposure to trauma and violence. You could also be treating them for that one incident that brought them to the emergency room, but you are actually treating their entire history.

The most difficult one recently was once we had a girl whose boyfriend strangled her and beat her severely. The neighbors called and the police got here and took her away. He strangled her a lot that we saw signs of strangulation. While we were processing her and preparing her for discharge, she called her boyfriend to choose her up. She just checked out me and said, “I do know you most likely think I’m crazy. I do not even know if I like him, but I just don’t desire to be alone. It was a “wow” moment for me. I told her, “Why don’t we attempt to work on being alone? So you are not alone.” She left, and two weeks later daylight broke out again. She went to a different hospital, but she called and asked for us. I managed to maneuver her, maintain her and that is it. She finally left him and now she’s soaring. If we did not have this follow-up program, she would have walked out and never come back.

When you take a look at ED nurses, they see themselves as ED nurses. But once they see injuries, say someone who looks like they have been whipped with a belt, they do not consider it as forensics, but as emergency care. I feel forensic nursing is just not a term that they’re accustomed to, and the higher we define it and share what it means, the more nurses will realize that that is what they do. Nurses involved in all points of health care delivery will recognize this.

We get to know our colleagues from forensic nursing and see that we have now amassed a certain quantity of information and experience. I also think it is vital this week for each nurse to reflect on their practice and see what their job is, forensic nursing. For example, working with the elderly or children involves a number of forensic work.

It was really wonderful. It takes me to a different level where I can develop. Reading manuscripts, giving feedback, and inspiring others to jot down was great. This makes me happy with my career and an honor to serve on the editorial board. I do know that every thing that goes into print is of superb quality. I’m very happy with the high standard we have now set for this magazine. I see this journal because the flagship of the sector of forensic nursing.

I travel regularly to Haiti, where I play two roles. First, I’m working with local Haitian nurse leaders to develop nursing leadership in Haiti with my organization, EqualHealth.org. We host conferences there and our work could be very interdisciplinary. There, teams need to work in harmony, so we deal with that. Second, I conducted research on gender-based violence in Haiti.

Nurses will find a way to practice their career to the total extent of their qualifications. I might love for all nurses to proceed their education indirectly, shape or form. I also consider that nurses must be on the tables where policy is made. Nurses can play a key role in education, practice, research and policy, and I need nurses to acknowledge that.

*Do an inspiring nurse who might be honored in the subsequent edition of “Nurses on the Move”? Send your entries by e-mail [email protected].