Healing Heart: Lisa Bolton RN FNP

What did you do before you became a nurse?

I had a career in advertising and marketing and was writing and producing promos for our many shows at CMT / Country Music Television which had become an MTV Network, so we were doing less music shows and more “lifestyle” shows for example “My Big Fat Redneck Wedding.”

When did you initially know you wanted to become a nurse?

I had had my first and actually only child and had gone back to church, where I had participated in a small group discussion series called “Diversity in Dialog” which opened my eyes to how things really are, in America, for many people. At the same time, I was seeing a lot of doctors and nurses for the first time in my life: obgyn clinic, pediatrician clinic, ear doctor, etc. These people all seemed to like their work and to be doing something with meaning and purpose. I wanted this too. The doctors and nurses I overshared with were so gracious and encouraging, and I felt like a midlife career change would be possible and maybe wonderful.

Why did you become a nurse?

I explored medicine, physician assistant, nurse practitioner. The nursing profession attracted me with the holistic approach: that idea of helping the patient learn to live well with illness, which can be overwhelming. Back in the day, when people got injured or sick they either got well or they died. Today we live with “chronic illness” which means not just pills or surgery, but ongoing diet and lifestyle change. How do we care well for ourselves and one another, in a world which does not necessarily support a healthy lifestyle, meaning: getting enough sleep and rest, getting :30 minutes of exercise a day, shopping and cooking and enjoying nutritious meals, and managing stress in hopefully safe and legal ways. Nursing turned out to be the perfect type of profession for modern healthcare problems in a rather chaotic world, especially for someone with the gift of being that person that others wanted to share their problems with spontaneously.

Why did you choose to work at NGH?

I was hired by wonderful Marc Overlock, famous social worker and attorney, and the Friends in General Board to do outreach in the churches and faith communities surrounding our hospital. This opportunity spoke to my passion for helping people take better care of themselves, especially people who have historically been in many ways left out. The Foundation and the hospital under Dr Webb have taken a creative and innovative leadership approach to helping people improve their health. This was my passion when I was a student at Vanderbilt School of Nursing, and I am thrilled to be part of what this hospital is doing.

What do you like about working at NGH?

I love the affiliation with Meharry Medical College, I love the inpatient service and clinics caring for patients together, I love working with people from all over the world and all walks of life, I love the traditional family-like vibe at this hospital. I love my relationships with my patients and with the other nurses, doctors, students and staff. I love that we are doing something unique and needed here in North Nashville in a wonderful small academic teaching hospital. Our attending physicians are excellent, and I appreciate being able to consult with them and to learn from them.

What has been the most difficult part of nursing/working during the COVID-19 pandemic?

As an outpatient nurse, I am not front line. I have felt a mix of grief and deep admiration for the devotion of my front line colleagues, and I have felt frustration and anger at this misinformation “put out there” per an apparently political agenda by people who I would say do not share my interest in my patients’ heath and wellbeing. I have been so grateful to continue to have a daily routine, a job, an income. So many have lost so much. Concurrently with COVID has been the Black Lives Matter movement, and I have felt in a sense more on the front lines of that, than of COVID. We are caring for patients who have dealt with and are dealing with significant multifactorial individual and collective trauma, which we seem to be finally trying to address in this country. I am hopeful about the positive change which seems to be trying to take place. I grieve for what so many of my patients have experienced, and I appreciate the opportunity to be a compassionate, empathetic nurse for our patients.

How has nursing changed during your career?

I think nurses have been working quietly in the background as the business of health care has led to changes including shorter hospital stays, meaning that patients are sent home “quicker and sicker,” with less time for nurses at the bedside to do all that their training prepares them to do for the recovering patient. Maybe we see that now, and maybe there is more appreciation for the work of nursing, and maybe there will be more priority placed on better nurse-to-patient ratios and on more clinician time with patients, which evidence shows produces better outcomes.

If a nurse ran the world, how would our lives be different?

A nurse is first and foremost a strong patient advocate. If a nurse ran the world, then the world would be that nurse’s patient. The world needs to be able to support life and wellbeing for the people and creatures who live here on the earth, and so the nurse would also be promoting health wellbeing for all.

The nursing approach would include strategies to address climate change, sustainable and humane food production, affordable housing, excellent public education, protocols for managing common problems, initiatives for preventing circumstances that lead to addiction and homelessness and crime, and using treatment rather than punishment to create more healthy, happy communities and nations. The most nurse-like of the Presidential Candidates in my view was Elizabeth Warren, because like all nurses: she has a plan.

What inspires you?

Morning coffee and prayer. That and seeing someone go from feeling tired and unwell with out of control blood sugar and high blood pressure and smoking, to being someone who successfully did the work to quit smoking, to take medications accurately and maybe even able to come off a medication or two, to lose a bit of weight, to start exercising more, to get that A1c number down under 7, and who feels better now, with a spring in their step and a sparkle in their eye. Sometimes patients apologize for crying in their appointments, and I am inspired by their willingness to be completely honest with themselves and with me regarding their struggles, and to share their process and progress and encourage others, to get up in the morning and make it to their appointment with their blood pressure logs and their glucometers and doing all the difficult baby steps of healthy lifestyle change that we counsel them to do. I am inspired by how connected and the same we all are, each of us, regardless of our differences.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not at work?

Seeing movies with family and friends in the actual movie theatre is kind of my drug of choice. I missed this a lot during COVID. Also having dinner with my son, who grew up and graduated from college during the time I became a nurse and joined NGH. Also going for a long chatty walk on the Greenway or around Radnor Lake. Also visiting my tiny toddler great-nieces and my mom and sis in Kansas City.