Celebrating Nurses 2009 : Thomas Brown
Celebrating Nurses 2009 : Thomas Brown
'You get experience in everything'
Special Sections Writer
As unit coordinator in the emergency department at Randolph Hospital in Asheboro, Thomas Brown never knows what the day will bring.
"If you work in critical care, you know what you're gonna get in critical care," Brown said. "Same thing as in (pediatrics). Here we get a variety of everything. You may be trying to deliver a baby one moment, the next minute you've got somebody with a heart attack, the next minute you've got somebody having a stroke."
Brown, 38, a native of Erect in southeastern Randolph County, has worked at the hospital for two years. He became a registered nurse after almost 20 years as a transport paramedic in Pinehurst.
"You get experience in everything in the ER — that's what I like about it," he said. "You get a little bit of adrenaline, too, but the older I get, I'm not much on that adrenaline rush."
It's Brown's job as unit coordinator to keep things organized amid the chaos.
"I mainly do throughput to the ER," he said. "Make sure everything's moving through in a smooth, timely fashion. Try to make sure everybody's got a bed when they need it. ... You can go from no patients to a patient overload in a matter of minutes."
The emergency department's administrative secretary, Elizabeth Boettcher, nominated Brown as an extraordinary nurse. She praised Brown for his work with a patient "who could no longer speak for himself."
"In September, we were holding a body in the morgue," Boettcher wrote. "This man had arranged for his body to be donated to science so that he would not be a financial burden for his family. Through no fault of his own, this did not happen. Thomas discovered that the man was a veteran and contacted (U.S. Rep.) Howard Coble's office to arrange for a military burial."
Brown ended up going to the man's funeral at the military cemetery in Salisbury.
"We kind of watched from a distance, because he had some friends there and we didn't really know him, so I didn't want to walk up as a stranger," he said. "It was different. The 21-gun salute kind of hits you hard, no matter whose funeral it is."
Brown's father had serious health problems, getting a pacemaker at age 46. That inspired him to pursue a career in medicine, and Brown went into nursing based on the example set by his wife, who works at Randolph Hospital as a nurse on the progressive coronary unit. He has found plenty of rewards in his new career.
"I can come in here and have one of the worst days imaginable, and at the end of the day I can have someone come up and say, ‘Thank you for what you've done,' or really turn someone's care around where they have a better prognosis on discharge," Brown said.
- Debra Allen , Rockingham Co. Health Dept
- Diane Bell, Randolph Cancer Center
- Thomas Brown, Randolph Hospital
- Leslie Butcher, Brenner's Children's Hospital
- Lenora D. Clapp, NC Dept of Corrections
- Cynthia E. Knust, Moses Cone Health Systems
- Marsha Roddenberry, High Point Regional
- Marsha Long, Carolina Medical Center
- Jan Parker, Hospice of Greensboro
- Sarah Turner, Kids Path/Hospice
