Through my journey at Baptist, I have met several educators who made a wonderful impact on not just myself, but also the nurse that I am becoming. If I had done this while taking Adult I and Pharmacology, I would not have nominated this person, but in Adult II, I had the pleasure of being assigned to Christina Hillhouse's clinical group. When I say that woman changed me, I genuinely mean it. I had such the wrong impression of her in pharmacology. Looking back, I know now that it was just the amount of information she had to give us, in such a short amount of time. Being in her clinical group was such a blessing to me. Her compassionate bedside manner is something I think all nurses should witness. I have been on the floor when things were intense and it was a rather serious moment, we all looked to her wondering what was going on and she calmly pulled us to the side and talked us through the entire situation while we looked on. She continuously sought out opportunities for us to see things, to perform various skills, and for us to learn various things that we typically would only read about.
Her focus was clearly on helping us to our way and helping us "connect the dots". Her tone with us was always calm and kind and was always in an educating way, instead of a "you should know this" way. It was so refreshing to have someone talk me through things and make me think beyond the obvious and without making me leave the conversation feeling dumb. I have been in clinical groups before where it seemed more of a power trip situation and about asserting authority instead of teaching and showing the way. Ms. Hillhouse is anything but that. During my time in her group, I feel I really found myself and learned so much. I was sad to see it end and find myself missing those clinical days. I hope that one day I can be half the nurse she is. Ms. Hillhouse is a true DAISY Nurse.