JNESO

Christine Newberry, RN, likes to take a hands-on approach with everything she does.  Whether it is building a house, restoring a Victorian home to its former glory, or using the same skills of patience, dedication and commitment along with her vast medical knowledge to help the people around her as a nurse – she is all in.

“I like to be directly involved,” said Newberry, of East Stroudsburg, Pa. “For me seeing the changes in patients, being able to watch them improve and trying to help them when they are at the most difficult points in their live is what matters most.”

Newberry has been a nurse for 37 years and works in the Cardiovascular Telemetry Unit at Lehigh Valley Hospital – Pocono. 

Newberry enjoys working in the Cardiovascular Telemetry Unit.  “I think the heart is a very interesting organ and the rhythms are fascinating. It is amazing how our bodies will correct themselves when they are not in the best of health,” she explained. “I get a variety of patients, not just cardiac, and I like being able to directly interact with my patients, educate them, and really get to know them and their family members.”

Newberry said it is hard to be a bedside nurse these days, but she learned the impact that nurse-patient relationship can have early in her career and always strives to make that connection.

“When I was a very new nurse on night shift, a patient started a new medication and had adverse side effects.  While caring for my other patients, I still spent most of my night with him, helping him walk, talking with him, checking how he was feeling every hour until my shift ended.  By my next shift he was not there and I didn’t know the outcome.” She continued, “A few weeks later, he and his wife came back and told me how much they appreciated the care I gave to them.  Knowing as a new nurse that you can make such a difference in a positive way made a huge impact on me.”

She added, “My patients are like my family when I am there, I feel protective and want to see nothing but good for them.”

Newberry takes this same approach with the nurses she works with.  She is active in the JNESO local at LVH-P.

“I try to get involved as much as possible,” said Newberry.  “Working in any profession you hope that your employer will do the right thing, but that is not always the case at the end of the day.  Having JNESO helps strengthen our voice, provides protection, and helps make sure that employers do the right thing for patients as well as staff.”

Newberry loves being a nurse and spends most of her time caring for others, even outside of her job often helping neighbors and friends who are struggling with health issues.  On the rare occasion she isn’t in “helping mode,” she enjoys going for walks with her dogs and taking in nature and its’ beauty. In addition, she is passionate about home improvement projects and is a force to be reckoned with when you put a power tool in her hand.

In some ways her profession and her hobby run parallel, both focused on trying to make things better to improve lives, but when it comes to healthcare there is one huge difference.

“At the end of the day you are not dealing with parts, you are dealing with people and people’s lives.  And that is where it is so different, because it is a profession where it is not just you going to work and doing a job. If you don’t do your job someone’s life can truly be on the line.”