ASPIRING ACTRESS LANDS LEADING ROLE AS A NURSE
“In some ways, nursing is a way to satisfy my itch to act and perform,” she says. “I can still wear those hats.”
- Nightingale honoree,
Shannon Rattrey didn’t dream of being a nurse. With a love of dance and drama, she was bound for the bright lights and excitement of an acting career. Or so she thought.
“My mom is a nurse educator and I remember telling her I didn’t want to be a nurse,” she recalls with a smile. “I was supposed to be playing a nurse on TV, not being a nurse in real life!”
Somewhere along the line, the course of Shannon’s professional journey found her pursuing a career as a nurse and by all accounts she was born to be here, leading by example at Hartford Hospital as a Clinical Nurse Leader.
She is highly regarded on her unit as a primary preceptor who helped create and currently teaches the core curriculum for the patient population there. She is known for taking new nurses under her wing and fostering their growth both professionally and personally.
In the past year, the unit saw multiple changes in patient demographics, going from surgery, then adding cardiothoracic surgery, transitioning to treating COVID positive patients and then to medicine and surgery. At every turn, Shannon was proactive, taking time to learn about the needs of each patient population and volunteering to care for them, using her experiences to inform and empower her colleagues.
One of Shannon’s strengths is to meet even the most challenging situations with a lighthearted, optimistic attitude that puts even the most anxious patients at ease. That gift was on continual display throughout the pandemic and it went a long way in terms of comforting patients and lifting her team’s spirit in the toughest of times.
“We call it ‘juju’ on our unit – when our juju his high, the job is that much easier,” she shares. “It’s easier to deal with the hard days when everyone is smiling. I can make my peers more comfortable through education and exhibiting behaviors that show them we’ll get through it together.”
Shannon’s commitment to patient care is not limited to the hospital. She is very active in the community, participating in food drives, Thanksgiving meal distribution and school supply drives for inner-city children. She says the personal interaction with a diverse group of people has made her a better nurse, noting, “Cultural background awareness helps us better serve and relate to our patients. I am always interested in working to understand their situation and breaking down those barriers. I have been granted the opportunity to meet with people who give me a different perspective. It’s made me a better, quicker critical thinker and allows me to be creative in so many other ways.”
Shannon says the skills she learned during her college acting days have served her well on the job, especially during COVID when it has been important to put personal fears and anxieties aside to treat and comfort patients during very uncertain times.
“In some ways, nursing is a way to satisfy my itch to act and perform,” she says. “I can still wear those hats.”