JNESO

“It is so rewarding to help people help themselves,” said Elizabeth Kudrick, who has been a Registered Nurse for 34 years. A resident of Red Bank, N.J., Kudrick has worked for the Visiting Nurse Association of New Jersey in Holmdel, N.J. for the past 28 years. 

Kudrick was inspired to become a nurse at a young age. “I had this wonderful nurse in the pediatrician’s office when I was little, she listened to me, was very kind and when I was scared, she comforted me. I wanted to be like her.”  Kudrick earned a BSN from Trenton State College and noted, “I use these same approaches on a daily basis with my patients.”

 Kudrick cares for up to six patients a day in their homes across Monmouth County and handles home assessments, educating patients on medication, the disease process, wound care, and more as part of a care team that includes therapists and aides.  

 “I enjoy being able to have the time to spend with patients, you don’t always get that luxury in a hospital setting.” She explained, “I had a patient with very high blood pressure, I did a lot of teaching about nutrition and the blood pressure came down and they were off the blood pressure medications within two months. Being able to provide more personalized care makes a difference.”

 This kind of care is particularly important since the majority of her patients are 65 or older. “They don’t want to go to the hospital, and they don’t want to be in a subacute center to recover from illness or surgeries. They want to be in their home environment and having us come out makes it much easier for them,” she explained. “I think they do recover faster both physically and mentally when cared for at home, especially if they have family there to help them.”

 Kudrick not only cares for her patients, she supports her fellow nurses as a JNESO board member and has served on multiple contract negotiation committees fighting for the rights and protection of VNA nurses. “The union really helps us with work conditions and keeping an open line of communications with management,” she explained. “We work together with our members to identify issues and then try to resolve them with management to improve the work environment.”

 “Being a nurse is care, comfort and compassion all intertwined, but it is also understanding what the patient is going through and being supportive,” said Kudrick. “That is what we do.”