Covington nurse Melanie Ives is living her dream
“Even after she passed, the nurses came back to see us on their own time,” Ives said. “They were so great to us, and we were close. I told them then that I wanted to be a nurse.”
Ives embraced that dedication as she worked her way through nursing school and ultimately landed her dream job as a nurse at a hospital.
“I love the one-on-one time at the bedside with patients,” she said. “It’s one way to be like the nurses who helped us with grandma.”
The journey to MultiCare: “It’s like a family here.”
Ives grew up in Guam and came to Washington state for nursing school. She attended Pierce College in Puyallup, then earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington – Tacoma. Ives worked at a hospital for 13 years before leaving to find work that offered more flexible schedules.
When COVID-19 hit, she felt drawn back to hospital work and joined MultiCare.
“It’s like a family here,” she said. “I like how everyone is there for each other. They ask whether you are okay. We lean on each other.”
Ives and her husband have four daughters, ages 10, 7, 5 and 3. Ives’s mother had moved in with the Ives family as she fought her own battle with cancer — and she was near the end of radiation treatments when COVID-19 reached Washington state.
Surviving during COVID: “I left the safety of my home to enter the ‘battlefield’ that was now my job.”
We often recognize that the past year has been challenging for health care workers. We sometimes overlook the effects on their families. Ives related some of her own family’s experiences.
“The anxiety I felt that first day as I donned my scrubs and left the safety of my home to enter the ‘battlefield’ that was now my job, without knowing what to expect, was suffocating,” Ives said. “As much as I would like to say that every day got easier from that point, I think I speak for many individuals when I say that it did not.”
She was solely fixated on being safe and physically distanced at work and at home. She was so focused on her family’s physical safety, Ives said, that she failed to take into account their mental, emotional, social and psychological needs.
That is, until her 3-year-old asked the question, “Mommy, can I hug you?”
Ives scooped up the little one and held on tight.
“I miss your hugs, Mommy,” the toddler said.
“It broke my heart,” Ives said. “I just didn’t think about it until it was brought to my attention, then I realized I hadn’t hugged her in so long.”
After a good, long cry, Ives made several adjustments in her work and home worlds so that she could continue to maintain health and safety for herself, family and patients while planning time and energy for hugs and caring.
“I could feel the compassion from her heart.”
Ives was recognized in May 2021 with the DAISY Award® for Extraordinary Nurses. The DAISY Award is a program created by the DAISY Foundation to provide on-going recognition of the skill and compassion nurses provide to patients and families at partnering health care organizations.
Nurses are nominated for this award by patients and families.
“This nurse has treated me with such care and compassion at a time that I needed it most,” Ives’ DAISY nominator wrote. “She listened to me with concern and I could feel the compassion from her heart. When I cried, she teared up with me. With all the concerns with the virus, all of you put your lives on the line.
“The staff come and then go home, but for us (the patients), we stay here in our rooms. We don’t get visitors,” the nominator continued. “Nurses like this nurse help us make this situation OK. She is a beautiful person and exceptional nurse!”
Nurses cure the heart
“Today, I am living my dream,” said Ives. “I get to go into work each day doing what I love and come home each day to those I hold nearest and dearest to my heart.”
She’s learned to ask for help when she needs it and take time for self-reflection. She still cries, but laughs are easier now.
“Nurses don’t do this for the thanks,” Ives said. “You do it for … being a nurse. It’s fulfilling. It’s rewarding to know you made an impression.”
Her mother is now cancer-free. Ives laughed a little and said her mother wanted her to be a doctor.
“I knew I wanted to be a nurse since I was 8 years old,” Ives said. “Doctors cure the body; nurses cure the heart.”
The DAISY Awards are presented at MultiCare hospitals and honor licensed nursing professionals in more than 2,000 health care facilities worldwide for outstanding patient care, clinical skills and extraordinary compassion in nursing.
