When Sherly Paul meets with a patient, she has something too few other nurses do these days; she has time.
“At the Healthy Birth Initiative, I actually have the time to listen to my clients,” Paul told the Board of County Commissioners Thursday. The board unanimously approved the proclamation that calls for recognizing May 6 - 12 as National Nurses Week in Multnomah County. “By listening to my clients, I have time to find out what they really need. I am able to not just treat not just my client, but the whole family.”
Paul works with pregnant African-American women through the Healthy Birth Initiative (HBI) to improve the health outcomes in communities with disproportionately low birthrates and high infant mortality.
“I just want everyone to know that HBI is a great program,” she said. “And nurses are awesome.”
Paul is one of 12,000 registered nurses in Multnomah County. That makes up the majority of nurses in Oregon.
“Nurses are the most trusted professionals in America,” Sarah Baessler with the Oregon Nurses Association told the commissioners. “That gives nurses a very powerful voice. Nurses use their voice to advocate first and foremost for their patients and at every level of government to improve the health care system and public health, from safe staffing to tobacco prevention to universal access to healthcare.”
The Oregon Nurses Association represents 13,000 nurses across the state, 250 of whom are employed by Multnomah County to work in corrections, environmental health, to school-based and primary care clinics, and home visiting programs.
Maggie Gould, who works in development at the Multnomah County Health Department, said she’s lucky to get to work with nurses who each bring and develop an expertise to their profession.
The corrections nurses become experts at emergency response; school-based nurses are experts in child development. The nurses who work with the Early Childhood and Healthy Birth Initiative are experts in lactation and the effects of trauma on children. And clinic staff keep abreast of the latest advancements in everything from HIV treatment to pediatric immunizations.
They all have one thing in common, Gould said.
“A strong passion for the work we do and an authentic desire to improve the health of our community. I’m proud to be among this group,” she said. “It’s the work they do that makes me proud to call myself a nurse.”
Chair Deborah Kafoury, who brought forth the proclamation, expressed her appreciation for the work that nurses do and stressed the importance of the profession.
“I think this proclamation is all the more relevant during this time of health care transformation where there’s a lot of uncertainties about the future,” Chair Kafoury said. “But I think there is one thing that I am certain about: the need for nurses has never been greater.”
