To celebrate National Nurse's Day, May 6, the Emory Eye Center wanted to find out a little more about the two nurse navigators who are on our staff. Cindy Bell, MSN, RN, CNL, CMSRN, and Amber Henry, RN.
Celebrating Cindy Bell and Amber Henry, Emory Eye Center's nurses
Cindy Bell
Most nurses cart around a 'mental suitcase' full of patient encounters that have inspired them. Cindy Bell is no different, but she’s not a chatty person by nature.
If coaxed, the new nurse navigator for Emory Eye Center’s neuro-ophthalmology service will recount a memorable exchange she had on her first nursing job, more than three decades ago. It’s simple, and its lesson is subtle, but it speaks volumes.
During a shift-change, Bell was taking notes from the nurse who was going off-duty. The latter pointed to a room and warned Bell that the patient in there was grumpy, depressed, and definitely wouldn’t smile.
Bell listened patiently – she always does – but she did not agree with her colleague’s ‘diagnosis.’
“During my shift I spent a lot of time with this patient, listening to and caring for her. She was very sick and alone, with no family visiting her. During one of my visits with her, she smiled. It wasn’t a big smile, but she was genuinely happy, even if only for a moment. It sounds simple, but it was very rewarding. I made a positive difference to her, and her to me. Nursing is very rewarding.”
Thousands of patients later, Cindy Bell keeps that reward in mind.
Bell’s father gave her the nic-name “Nurse Cindy” when she was a child, and she always excelled in the math and science courses that would be the bedrock for a medical career. But it wasn’t until both her parents had died that Cindy Bell decided to pursue a nursing career.
She was 19 years old.
“I started out in a LPN program, but I immediately knew that wasn’t where I was going to stay. I was talking about getting my master’s degree before I’d finished that program.”
Without parents to cheer her on, Bell became her own cheerleader. She enrolled in school full-time and worked one full-time and two part-time jobs to get through her LPN program. Some people in her life tried to discourage her because all they saw was a sleep-deprived young woman.
One can imagine Bell nodding politely at their comments... and continuing her journey.
“I was in a sink or swim mode because who else was going to make this happen?” she recalls. “I knew that time was going to go by, one way or another, and what I had to do was make that time count. The one thing I wasn’t going to do was quit.”
That persistence paid off, as Bell eventually powered her way through associate's, bachelor's and master's degree programs in nursing.
Bell’s decades of nursing experience have been put to good use in the neuro-ophthalmology service, where she is the first person to field inquiries from referring doctors and many patients. Each day, she assists patients by managing external referrals and internal consults from physicians who are seeking the advice of Emory Eye Center’s world-renowned clinicians. She also helps patients arrange post-hospital follow-up appointments and to connect with needed resources.
Whatever the task, Bell employs the same tactic: she listens carefully, critically reviews incoming information, and assumes a calm demeanor -- all skills she honed during years of nursing.
"It's important to communicate well with patients, colleagues, and the interdisciplinary team.," she said. "Using all of these skills allows me to gain valuable information, close gaps, and improves patient care.”
Cindy Bell is currently enrolled in a doctoral nursing program through the University of Alabama.
Amber Henry
Amber Henry has been the nurse navigator for the comprehensive ophthalmology section of the Emory Eye Center for just over a year. She loves the job, her colleagues, and everything she is learning.
But it almost didn’t happen.
"Last year, I was working in [Emory’s] ambulatory surgery, on the first floor, but I had accepted a job closer to home and I was about to leave,” she recalls. “That’s when Dr. [Emily] Graubart heard I was leaving and she asked me to apply for this job.”
Henry doesn’t know exactly why an ophthalmology doc was recruiting her – a nurse with no experience in this specialty. But she has her suspicions.
“I always made a point of educating the patients [in the ambulatory surgery service] making sure they didn’t have any questions before their procedures. So when the doctor walked in, before surgery, their patients were ready to go. No questions.”
Henry smiles as she reflects on a career that has included 20 years in pediatrics and stints in the ER, the ICU, and the life flight service. Each one, an adventure, but she has found a special niche at the Emory Eye Center.
“This is the first position I’ve ever had as a nurse, where I’m appreciated, loved, and surrounded by a team that really wants to be here every day. I work for the best of the best.”
Henry estimates that 90 percent of her current job is patient education - making sure patients understand how to prepare for medical procedures, scheduling them with the right clinician, and ….
“When patients have a question, they know they can message me on MyChart [Emory’s online messaging system]. I am a people-person, and I always try to give them a calm, confident response to their questions.”
When she’s not working (or navigating a daily 3-hour commute), Henry is in school, studying to complete her BS (this December) and her MS after that. Her ultimate goal is to become a nurse practitioner.
“If you don’t learn, your career as a nurse is over. That’s what I love about this department. I’ve learned a lot since I got here and I’m encouraged to keep learning from my docs.”
-Kathleen E. Moore