{"id":10599,"date":"2021-06-09T18:32:34","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T18:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prd-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/?p=10599"},"modified":"2024-03-19T21:30:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T21:30:22","slug":"covington-nurse-melanie-ives-is-living-her-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/covington-nurse-melanie-ives-is-living-her-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Covington nurse Melanie Ives is living her dream","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"<div>When Melanie Ives, RN, was 7 years old, her grandmother had cancer. For a year, nurses came to their house to provide care and cancer treatments. The nurses talked to young Melanie, explaining what was going on, and even let her help with caring for her grandma.<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cEven after she passed, the nurses came back to see us on their own time,\u201d Ives said. \u201cThey were so great to us, and we were close. I told them then that I wanted to be a nurse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ives embraced that dedication as she worked her way through nursing school and ultimately landed her dream job as a nurse at a hospital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love the one-on-one time at the bedside with patients,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s one way to be like the nurses who helped us with grandma.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The journey to MultiCare: \u201cIt\u2019s like a family here.\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Ives grew up in Guam and came to Washington state for nursing school. She attended Pierce College in Puyallup, then earned a bachelor\u2019s degree from the University of Washington \u2013 Tacoma. Ives worked at a hospital for 13 years before leaving to find work that offered more flexible schedules.<\/p>\n<p>When COVID-19 hit, she felt drawn back to hospital work and joined MultiCare.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like a family here,\u201d she said. \u201cI like how everyone is there for each other. They ask whether you are okay. We lean on each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ives and her husband have four daughters, ages 10, 7, 5 and 3. Ives\u2019s mother had moved in with the Ives family as she fought her own battle with cancer \u2014 and she was near the end of radiation treatments when COVID-19 reached Washington state.<\/p>\n<h2>Surviving during COVID: \u201cI left the safety of my home to enter the \u2018battlefield\u2019 that was now my job.\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>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\u2019s experiences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe anxiety I felt that first day as I donned my scrubs and left the safety of my home to enter the \u2018battlefield\u2019 that was now my job, without knowing what to expect, was suffocating,\u201d Ives said. \u201cAs 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was solely fixated on being safe and physically distanced at work and at home. She was so focused on her family\u2019s physical safety, Ives said, that she failed to take into account their mental, emotional, social and psychological needs.<\/p>\n<p>That is, until her 3-year-old asked the question, \u201cMommy, can I hug you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ives scooped up the little one and held on tight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI miss your hugs, Mommy,\u201d the toddler said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt broke my heart,\u201d Ives said. \u201cI just didn\u2019t think about it until it was brought to my attention, then I realized I hadn\u2019t hugged her in so long.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size: 1rem\"><p>\u201cI could feel the compassion from her heart.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ives was recognized in May 2021\u00a0with the DAISY Award\u00ae for Extraordinary Nurses. The DAISY Award is a program created by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.daisyfoundation.org\/daisy-award\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DAISY Foundation<\/a>\u00a0to provide on-going recognition of the skill and compassion nurses provide to patients and families at partnering health care organizations.<\/p>\n<p>Nurses are nominated for this award by patients and families.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis nurse has treated me with such care and compassion at a time that I needed it most,\u201d Ives\u2019 DAISY nominator wrote. \u201cShe 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe staff come and then go home, but for us (the patients), we stay here in our rooms. We don\u2019t get visitors,\u201d the nominator continued. \u201cNurses like this nurse help us make this situation OK. She is a beautiful person and exceptional nurse!\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Nurses cure the heart<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cToday, I am living my dream,\u201d said Ives. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s learned to ask for help when she needs it and take time for self-reflection. She still cries, but laughs are easier now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNurses don\u2019t do this for the thanks,\u201d Ives said. \u201cYou do it for \u2026 being a nurse. It\u2019s fulfilling. It\u2019s rewarding to know you made an impression.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her mother is now cancer-free. Ives laughed a little and said her mother wanted her to be a doctor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew I wanted to be a nurse since I was 8 years old,\u201d Ives said. \u201cDoctors cure the body; nurses cure the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Melanie Ives, RN, was 7 years old, her grandmother had cancer. For a year, nurses came to their house to provide care and cancer treatments. The nurses talked to young Melanie, explaining what was going on, and even let her help with caring for her grandma. \u201cEven after she passed, the nurses came back [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-profiles-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Covington nurse Melanie Ives is living her dream - MultiCare Vitals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The nurses talked to young Melanie, explaining what was going on, and even let her help with caring for her grandma.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/covington-nurse-melanie-ives-is-living-her-dream\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Covington nurse Melanie Ives is living her dream - 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