Celebrating Nurses Week: The heartbeat of your care

Exceptional care requires collaboration at every level of the care team. No matter what you’re facing or where you’re being treated, nurses are at the center of that work.

Our nurses’ skill, empathy and resilience shape every patient experience at MultiCare. From bedside care to care coordination, education and advocacy, nurses make healing possible.

To celebrate National Nurses Week, we asked a few of our MultiCare nurses to share what called them to this profession and what keeps them inspired.

Read their reflections here.

Hannah Humpherys, RN, MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital, labor and delivery

Hannah Humpherys, RN

What called you to work in health care? What keeps you here? 

“There are many reasons throughout my life that have led me to work in health care, but I think the biggest reason would be that when I was 17 years old, I delivered my son at Yakima Memorial. I had an amazing experience with the most compassionate team that made me feel safe and heard. After witnessing the teamwork of the nurses who took care of me, I realized the amount of respect that I had gained for health care workers. The outstanding team that I am fortunate to work with every day, and my passion for women’s health, is ultimately what motivates me and keeps me eager to continue this rewarding career.”

How do you hope to impact the community through your work? 

“My goal is to provide compassionate care to every patient, build trustworthy relationships and ensure that my patients feel safe coming back, whether that be for themselves or with family members.”

What do you love about your job?

“There are never two days that are the same at my job. I’m fortunate enough to hold the hands of those having the best days of their life, and on others I’m holding the hands of those having the worst days of their lives. I can’t think of another job where I would wear both of those hats in the blink of an eye. Being able to be supportive of women in their most vulnerable times is truly an honor that I don’t take lightly. My team is also unmatched. I have the most amazing co-workers that truly feel like family and I wouldn’t be able to give the care that I do without them by my side.”

Lauren Siler, RN, MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, operating room

Lauren Siler, RN

What called you to work in health care?

“I chose nursing as a career because I wanted room to grow personally and professionally. I love belonging to this global community of people from all walks of life, all making their own unique contribution to the nursing discipline. In other words, I came for the nursing and stayed for the nurses.”

How do you show up for your patients beyond just your daily work?

“When I’m in the hospital, I’m contributing to an environment of warmth and kindness for my patients and their families. I want everyone who comes to Tacoma General to know they have an advocate, even if they’re not my patient.”

What do you love about your job?

“I love the people most of all. I am forever in awe of my colleagues’ wisdom, skill and compassion. We have a departmental culture in the OR that supports knowledge-sharing across many roles and disciplines, so I am learning something new every day.”

Linsey Beaver, RN, MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital, labor and delivery

Linsey Beaver, RN

What called you to work in health care?

“Nursing is a second career for me. Formally, I was in executive player development and management as a casino host. Although the job was fun and offered many unique opportunities, my performance was based on how much I could get my clients to spend quarterly even when it became detrimental to their finances. Morally, I couldn’t continue with this career, so one night I went home and prayed on it. The next day it felt like I was hit with a billboard-sized sign to go into nursing. I looked at local colleges and signed up the next semester to start on my prerequisite courses. I stay in nursing because I love to serve others. I support them through difficult times and celebrate the moments of joy. I get to witness the beauty of love at first sight and the miracle of birth.”

How do you show up for your patients beyond just your daily work?

“Giving birth can be exciting, but it can also be nerve-racking for patients. Many patients and their families do not know what to expect. When I get a new patient, I like to sit down with them during our TeamBirth huddle and figure out what is important to them and what we can do to make their birth extraordinary. We review the care plan and make sure all their questions get answered. I ensure my patients know that they have a voice and that I am there at their side for this awesome journey! I also love being the cameraman and taking lots of photos for my families to help them capture their special day!”

How do you hope to impact the community through your work?  

“I hope to impact my community by staying knowledgeable and up to date on evidence-based practices that keep both mom and baby safe during their stay with us.”

What do you love about your job?

“I love educating my patients on the birthing process and sharing in on their special day. I do what I can to make it a memorable journey that they look back on fondly. I love taking the first family photos and helping with the keepsakes. I absolutely love the team I work with too. The staff at Good Sam (from all aspects, EVS to the MDs) work well together and support each other.”

Troy James Elonen, RN, MultiCare Deaconess Hospital, emergency department

Troy James Elonen, RN

What called you to work in health care?  

“I have always considered that working in health care/being a nurse is a calling. Initially, when I was 18 years old, I felt this calling to be from God, his love working in me and my faith propelling me into the nursing profession. I saw that caring for people and being part of a health care team would be a great way to make a difference in people’s lives. Having this ability to impact people and make a small (or big) difference in people’s lives is what keeps me doing this work, and helps me to keep enjoying it also.”

How do you show up for your patients beyond just your daily work ?

“In life, we all have different talents and hobbies. My gift that I have is to speak (and keep learning to speak) foreign languages. This is something that I am constantly working on and improving on. And almost on a nightly basis, at work, I get to use this gift. Sometimes it even seems that people from different nations just come my way at the workplace. The surprise and amazement that people have when I speak their mother language is such a blessing, both to me and them. It also often helps bring peace and healing while they are in our department (ER).”

How do you hope to impact the community through your work ?

“We get a lot of people who come into the ER with different addictions. Many of them genuinely want help. I always tell them that there is hope for them. That they matter.

And that they can be free from these addictions. One by one, I see that I can impact the community through one person brought to freedom at a time. In the ER setting, we can, at the very least, plant seeds of hope into them.”

What do you love about your job?

“I really love making connections with people. While taking care of them, I love learning the life stories of different people. And, of course, people almost always love to share a story with me. Also, seeing people get better, and feel better, is always very rewarding.”

Christina Espinoza, certified nurse-midwife, MultiCare Women’s Center – Bonney Lake

Christina Espinoza, certified nurse-midwife

What called you to work in health care?

“I was called to health care when I was young, but my passion for women’s health started with my service in the Peace Corps while I was living in Kenya. During my service I worked with local midwives and social workers in a rural clinic specializing on prenatal care, delivery and maternal child health services.”   

How do you show up for your patients beyond just your daily work?

“I show up for my patients every day. It might be the conversations we share in the office or thinking about them late at night and hoping that things will be OK. They always stay with me.”

How do you hope to impact the community through your work? 

“I am passionate about women’s health and I hope to empower the women in my community to ask for what they need and to be well informed about all of their options.”

What do you love about your job? 

“I love that my job allows me to be a part of women’s lives at such an important time. Having a baby can be a vulnerable time, and I hope to build up my patients with knowledge and confidence leading into this chapter of their life.”

Benjamin Hocutt, DNP, Pulse Heart Institute Heart Failure Services – Tacoma

Benjamin Hocutt, DNP

What called you to work in health care?

“I got into health care in order to make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients. I always enjoyed biology and anatomy/physiology and working with people, so health care seemed a natural fit for me. My mother is a nurse as well, so I grew up around health care professionals and adjacent to the health care system. What keeps me in health care aside from my patient interactions is the challenge of managing a chronic disease process.”

How do you show up for your patients beyond just your daily work?

“Currently I’m working within the larger MultiCare Health System to take a really deep dive into how we treat heart failure for our patients requiring admission to the hospital. My hope is to be able to push for system-level improvements that can make positive impacts at all of our hospitals. I’m also active in several of the larger health care advocacy organizations, such as the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology (ACC), American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) and Heart Failure Society of America; and I have leadership positions within ACC and AANP, which allows for advocacy of my health care colleagues and patients as well.”

How do you hope to impact the community through your work? 

“Heart failure is a significant public health burden in the United States, and when patients are hospitalized, their risk for getting worse or dying rises significantly. My hope is that by gaining more insight into how we treat heart failure in the hospital, we can identify potential treatment gaps and work to close those gaps. The impact on the community would be that patients would live longer and more healthy lives. For us as an organization it can help reduce financial penalties and decrease length of stay, which opens our beds to more patients who need our services.”

What do you love about your job? 

“I love the team that I work with; they are an amazing group of professionals with the sole goal of providing the best care possible. Having a great team makes it easier to show up every day and give it my best. When you have the people right, then it makes everything else fall into place.”