When thinking about a nurse on my team who consistently goes above and beyond in her nurse home visitor role, I always think about my coworker, Alison Mathis. Alison started as a new grad at NFP almost 3 years ago and has never once regretted not going the traditional hospital route. Since I've started two years ago, I've seen her show compassion to not only her clients but to her co-workers as well. She always is the first to volunteer to take new staff out on visits and be a voice for her teammates. She embraces opportunities to work with teammates to improve nursing practice at our site. She was actively involved on our charting committee in finding a more streamlined approach to documentation and consistently pursues learning opportunities to support her professional growth.
Alison has become our resident expert in delivering NFP to refugee clients. She readily embraces the challenging work of helping women fleeing their homelands to adjust to life in America while becoming mothers for the first time. She, in fact, seeks these referrals out. When Alison speaks of her personal mission as an NFP nurse, she states, "I want to be a safe and welcoming place to the people who didn't experience that in their own countries. I don't want to change them but to help guide them to meld our two cultures together." Serving these clients requires creativity and patience to negotiate the language barriers. A third of her clients require translation services, which can be a burdensome addition to the flow of a home visit, not to mention the additional work of scheduling. She has even developed a system of signs to communicate with a client who speaks a language for which there are no translation services available.
Alison has a specialized understanding of geopolitical history and the unique cultural considerations of this population—which she readily shares with our team, improving our collective practice. She delivers the NFP model with high quality and a client-centered approach, providing appropriate scaffolding to their self-sufficiency when needed. For example, she has been known to walk with a client to the grocery store and help her shop when she doesn't understand the language. She has helped to complete housing applications when the process seems impossible to a client who has no one else to turn to. If a problem comes up where she cannot herself find the solution, she seeks out the necessary resources to help solve the problem. She has forged strong working relationships with local refugee service organizations and she attends community meetings about the different refugee populations in Denver to learn how best to serve and advocate for them. In addition, she is a part of the NFP Refugee Community of Practice and is a voice for our team in discussions related to challenges, opportunities, and best practices. She is not only a teacher to her clients but learns from them as well and brings that to our team. In the next few months, she is having one of her clients come to our retreat to educate us on immigrant rights and detention through the Know Your Rights training.
On top of maintaining a caseload of 25 plus clients and completing over 60 home visits in a month, she has found time to obtain her Lactation Counselor Certificate so she can better assist her clients struggling with breastfeeding to help them meet their goals of having the best health and development for their newborns. She has served as a member of our nurse hiring team in the past and has brought particularly careful consideration and thoughtful insights to our interview process. Alison's professional demeanor is an example to the whole team. She brings a calm, mature, confidence to her work as well as a keen and sensitive sense of humor. She is a shining example of how new graduates can be a tremendous resource to Nurse-Family Partnership. Alison has been a pleasure to work with over the last two years and is most deserving of the DAISY award for nursing excellence.