A Nurse First

There for everything

• Sigma Nursing

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Lindy Finch has wanted to help people her entire life. When it was her family who needed the help, the kindness, reassurance, and empathy shown by St. Judes' nurses had a profound impact on her—so much so that it changed her career path and her life. 

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My experience with oncology care as a patient family member really shaped the way that I care for my own patients just because I do remember how scary it was to be that family member and, you know, fear of the unknown. You are thrown into this series of events following an x-ray that looks concerning to someone. And then all of a sudden, here you are at St. Jude, which is an incredible place, but it's a place no one wants to be, right? And just remembering, you know, how overwhelming that was and how there's this level of disbelief that you're actually here and it's Welcome to A Nurse First. This is Lindy Finch My whole life, I knew that I wanted to help people. I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in the medical field. And in my mind, that always meant being a pediatrician one day. So I went to Mississippi State University and began my journey as a medical professional with the intent of going to med school. When my sister was diagnosed, or really leading up to it, I was terrified. My sister and I were really young. She was in high school, I was in college. I did not know a whole lot at that time about pediatric oncology, but when you hear words being thrown around about bone tumor, you know, you Google. And osteosarcoma is a pretty devastating diagnosis. And when I realized that there was potential that that's what this was, you know, you kind of go into the spiral. And I just remember we got there. got kind of settled in, and we were being seen in one of the outpatient clinics for the first time, and that nurse came in. We're all, you know, emotionally just drained, but we're also worried, there's a lot of fear, anxiety, and just the way that she spoke to us and told us, you know, it's going to be okay no matter what they find. You're in the right place. Just that reassurance and that was kind of echoed throughout the whole experience and just how kind. that they were empathetic and understanding. They really took their time with us. It felt like we were truly her main focus every single time we interacted with them. Thank God when that biopsy came back showing that it was not osteosarcoma, it was actually a desmoplastic fibroma, which is a very rare but benign bone tumor that kind of mimics osteosarcoma in a way, but it's thankfully not cancerous. We were so relieved. So after everything kind of, you know, we got some answers, that biopsy came back and we realized what it was. I did need to drive back to school. And on that drive, that's exactly, you know, I was thinking about everything that had happened in the past, you know, several weeks to a month and, you know, really just ruminating on, okay, what did those roles look like? Maybe being a physician isn't necessarily what I want to do, because I do want that one-on-one. In my sister's experience, I noticed just how the nurses interacted with us as a family, as well as her as a patient, and that really shifted my perspective. You know, the physicians, of course, were phenomenal. They were wonderful, but the nurses were the ones who were there. for everything, right? The way that our job as nurses is designed, you naturally spend so much more time with the patients and families. I want to make someone feel the way that that nurse made us feel, and I want that to be where I am in this whole wild medical, medical professional world, right? I was on that—it was like a two-and-a-half-hour drive—and just thinking about what I wanted my career to look like, and I kind of made like a little pro-con list in my head. And it didn't take me very long to realize that, yep, I need to alter my life course, and I have got to be a nurse at St. Jude, and I will not stop until I am. And here I am. called my mom and told her what I was thinking and she just cried. But she was so proud of me for realizing that and really leaning into it. And that was that. I decided with my last semester of college that I would transition over to pre-nursing, get some pre-reqs, graduated, moved back here, back home to Memphis, and started nursing school. During nursing school, I became an extern on our leukemia unit at St. Jude. When I graduated nursing school, there were not any openings on that floor, but there was a day shift position on another floor, which is our We call it the IMCU Intermediate Care Unit, so there's a whole host of things on that unit, and I just thought that that would be a really great way for me to see a little bit of everything and challenge myself, anything from just regular chemo admissions to ICU step-down Lindy wasn't the only one whose career aspirations were redirected by her sister's cancer scare. In fact, her sister shared Lindy's aha moment, deciding to follow Lindy's footsteps into nursing and to the bedside at She totally had that same aha moment that I did and really wanted to come back and give back to St. Jude and ensure that other patients and families had the experience that we did. The fact that my sister works at St. Jude as a nurse alongside me is pretty incredible. I remember when I was still at the bedside, she was on nights, I was on days, and I come in to get report on my patient, and she was the nurse I was getting report from. And that was just really fun. You know, some of her patients that she sees on her floor make their way to me, and she was always able to Give them a little bit of extra comfort saying, hey, you know, I know you're scared to go have a transplant, but my sister works on that unit, so watch out for her and say hi. And then, you know, she would sometimes like come and visit down there and we would go see a patient together. And they really loved that level of connection. You know, after getting some experience, I became a preceptor. And that was kind of how I realized how much I love nursing education and professional development. During COVID, that unit actually closed down for a little bit, and I was rehomed to our bone marrow transplant unit. And I saw that as, you know, an unexpected challenge, totally different patient population. And I ended up falling in love with that and transferring to that unit. It's a pretty difficult unit to work on. The patients are typically very sick because they do come in, they go through a conditioning process, it completely wipes what little they do have, and then we transplant them with either a donor or with their own cells. So their inpatient stay is very lengthy. Usually, you're looking at about a month. And they're pretty sick the whole time. But it's really rewarding to see them walk out those doors, you know, once they have recovered, they do have counts. And then when they come back to visit and you get to spend time with them and see what life looks like now post-transplant. Precepting while working in the bone marrow transplant field led you to an opportunity to fulfill a new role as a nursing professional development practitioner for the same unit. What do you find fulfilling about this new position? And what Some of the tasks that I find the most fulfilling and rewarding would have to be, I am loving the nurse residency program that we have here at St. Jude. It is absolutely fantastic. It supports our nurses from day one, like pre-licensure, all the way through and so on. My role in that is more so supporting them when they first get here. As one of their small group leaders, we kind of break them up into groups. It's almost like a camp counselor, and we're kind of their touch point through the clinical rotation process. And what they do is they get here, we have an NCLEX study week, an onboarding week, and then they start rotating through each clinical area that they could potentially match to. And although I didn't have that experience when I went through nurse residency, it has changed a lot in such wonderful ways. Seeing how that plays out for our current cohorts is incredible because they They aren't hired onto whatever unit has a place without having a choice in it. It gives them a choice. They're able to see what each area is all about, meet some of their peers, and then they go through a matching process that determines which unit they will work on. And then they have residency sessions all throughout that first year until they graduate. You know, any of the ones that match to my unit, of course, I do check-ins with them, make sure that they're progressing through orientation well and support them in any needs that they may have. during that process but we also as a team have a big role in the nurse residency program as support through their transition to practice and I love that. Supporting them from residency to practice over time looks different for different people. You know, some people need a little bit more support ongoing than others, but really ensuring that they have that designated touch point in me, right? Because they're meeting us, meeting our whole team that first week. Getting to know us and then, you know, ensuring that they know that we're here for the long haul and that just because you are done with residency and done with orientation, I don't just go away. You know, forming those relationships with them on day one and then serving as either a formal or informal mentor is, you know, part of it. Ensuring that they, you know, are able to progress in their orientation, but also knowing that they have a friend, that relationship as well, that personal, because we know St. Jude is really a tough place to work. It's super rewarding, but we do see really sick kids here. And knowing how to take care of yourself can be a really difficult thing, especially when you've never been in a situation caring for these patients. In this new role as a nursing professional development practitioner, I've also come to see that the nurses themselves need a lot of support in order to support their patients, especially on BMT. Because like I said, they're there for a long time. And they're also very sick. And seeing that suffering over a prolonged period of time gets really, really, really heavy. And so for the residents that match to my unit, as well as other areas, not just BMT, I think it's really important to show them that here are some resources, here are some ways that I personally tackle difficult situations and how I recoup. as well as offering them just, sometimes they just, you know, everybody needs a space to vent, right? So professionally supporting them through orientation and then later on if they are wanting to get any kind of certification or maybe even be involved with nurse residencies, other cohorts, you know, supporting that in addition to just being that emotional support as well. And so in this seat, while I'm not at the bedside anymore, I get a lot of fulfillment from supporting them and meeting them where they are so that they're able to carry out their duties and support their patients in the way that we all want to. Don't be afraid to get into a mentorship or leadership role. Leadership and mentorship looks really different in a lot of different ways. Don't count yourself out. Think back on your own experiences and try to make someone else's experience that much Thank you for listening to A Nurse First from Sigma. If you loved this episode, do us a favor and subscribe, rate, and leave us a review. It is very much appreciated. For more information about A Nurse First and Sigma, visit