Celebrating Nurses 2009 : Sarah Turner
Celebrating Nurses 2009 : Sarah Turner
'Their eyes will tell you a lot'
Special Sections Writer
Losing a loved one to a terminal illness always hurts, especially when the loved one is a child. But attentive health care professionals can soothe the pain, as Eva Jones discovered when her young son required Hospice care.
"Hayden had a rare neurological disease called Krabbe disease, which took him from us one month and four days from his third birthday," Jones wrote, nominating Sarah Turner as an extraordinary nurse. "The year and a half Sarah was Hayden's nurse, she was on top of his care at all times; even on her day off she was only a phone call away. She helped us make the most of the time we had with our son, helping us plan trips to Disney, Ocean Isle and Alabama."
Turner, 42, works for Kids Path, part of Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro. The veteran registered nurse worked long stints at a hospital and a pediatrician's office before coming to Kids Path two years ago, but she has always worked with youngsters.
"My love has always been children or babies. I just never liked working with the adults as much. Probably my inability to move them and pick them up, and my vertical challenged-ness," Turner said, referring to her height. "When they were in traction, I couldn't reach them!"
She set her sights on nursing when she herself was still a child.
"I was very small when I decided to become a nurse," Turner said. "I was one of those people that liked to take care of people. My dad was accident-prone with the chain saw, so I doctored on him a couple of times. My grandmother was actually my biggest inspiration. She was I guess what's classified now as a nursing assistant at Fort Bragg hospital. If you stepped on a sandspur, she's gonna get the merthiolate and put it on there no matter how bad it burned. She was always doctoring us — she just knew what to do."
Turner has had to rely on her own instincts in her work with children, especially children such as Hayden who couldn't talk and tell her what was wrong.
"I really got to the point I could look in his eyes, I could look underneath his eyes — if they were dark, I knew he was getting sick," she said. "He challenged me. The way he looked, he could tell me by the way he looked when I needed to call Daddy because he was having a hard time, and needed Daddy home with Mama. I learned to read him pretty well. Their eyes will tell you a lot."
- 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
