Our Nurse of the Week is Nathan May, a 27-year-old nurse at Riley Hospital for Children, who has a passion for connecting with his pediatric cardiac patients. The gift that May brings to his patients is largely in his bedside manner, not his clinical skills.
He has mastered the art of making connections with his pediatric patients in the Heart Center, and he has a special trick for every age group. With babies, he taps into his music minor from college and sings lullabies. For school-age kids, he talks about, or sometimes even plays, video games with them. With older teens, sharing the latest meme usually gets their attention. However, he says the school-age kids are his favorites because they remind him of his nine nieces and nephews.
May didn’t start out working with pediatric patients and didn’t think he had the heart to care for kids. He originally worked with adult patients at a hospital in his hometown, before moving to Indianapolis and finding his passion for working with children at Riley.
May tells rileychildrens.org, “I wanted to do pediatrics when I started nursing school, then I had my first couple of patients, and they made me really sad because we had to stick them and do labs and cath them. I backed off. I didn’t think I had the heart for it.”
However, May discovered his passion for nursing while in school, taking after his mother and brother who are both nurses. After shadowing for a day in the Heart Center at Riley, May knew that was the right place for him. Now a year into his position there, May loves his job and his patients and is planning to enroll in a family nurse practitioner program next year.
To learn more about Nathan May, a nurse at Riley Hospital for Children who has a passion for connecting with his pediatric cardiac patients, visit here.
- Nationwide Shortage of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners Prompts Alternative Solutions from States - March 30, 2020
- Coldiron Senior Nurse Executive Fellowship Program Established to Enhance Development of Senior Nurse Executives - March 27, 2020
- Nurse of the Week: UW-Madison Nursing Student Marcela Hanson Crowdsources Childcare Help For Local Healthcare Workers During COVID-19 Pandemic - March 25, 2020