In celebration of National Nurse’s Week, we’re introducing you to a woman who has spent most of her life caring for children.
Paula Peterson has spent half a century helping kids like Cole face life with the neural disease spina bifida. He came to her party with a thank you poster and showed up ready to work.
“And in his wheelchair, he ran all over, greeting, making sure that everyone was having fun, and that everyone got a piece of Mrs. Backer’s cake,” said Peterson.
July marks 50 years since Peterson started working at Primary Children’s Hospital. Back then, the hospital overlooked Salt Lake from the north, high in the Avenues.
“We had a very small, small staff, and we had three offices in the basement of the hospital. And that's where it all began,” said Peterson.
Fifty years later, the focus that keeps her going as she manages the spina bifida program here.
“So, you build relationships on every single level. So, parents, child, staff, medical students, nursing students, residents,” she said.
Like so many of the people celebrated in a week for nurses, Paula is one of thousands, and she’s one of kind. Her colleagues clearly love her.
One colleague who came to Peterson’s celebration asked, “Where did the time go? We were all having fun.”
“I have been in Primary for over 20 years. So, I will maybe be Paula, someday,” said Shana Hawes-Horoba – another one-of-a-kind nurse. She’s in charge of emergency care nursing standards across all of Intermountain Health.
“There’s different pieces of medical care, but the nurses really are the ones that bring that whole picture together and making sure the needs are met,” said Horoba.
Peterson explained, “A nurse is the generalist among all the specialists. You're looking at what makes up the entire human being. And that's what I love about it.”
Horoba added, “They're hard working, compassionate, caring people that want to do the very best for anyone they’re taking care of.”
Taking care of children and families living with uncertainty and fear.
“I have grown to realize that I can be the calming force and help see that this baby who looks like them, who cries like there are other children, who they are they love during the pregnancy and they're gonna love for the rest of her life is precious to them as any other child, and this baby just happens to have Spina Bifida,” said Peterson.
