When Nancy Key lost her foot and then leg to bone cancer, she sought inpatient rehabilitation at Park Bend Health Center in North Austin. During her two bouts at the skilled nursing facility, her daughter and granddaughter were frequent visitors. Now, 20 years later, that granddaughter, Kaitlyn Faulk, a nursing student at ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ University’s Austin campus, is learning to care for elderly patients at the same place that once cared for her grandmother.
Kaitlyn is a first-semester student in the second-degree nursing program in the nationally ranked Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies. She was assigned to Park Bend Health Center for the clinical portion of her geriatric nursing course. When she first learned about her placement at the facility, Kaitlyn thought nothing of it. She did not recognize the name because she was no more than three years old at the time of her last visit.
But Kaitlyn’s mother remembered. “I was shocked and thrilled when I heard the news,” said Kristi Faulk. “That Kaitlyn is helping patients at Park Bend is very special to me since Mom was there.”
Though the circumstances that initially linked the Faulks to Park Bend were difficult, Kristi believes they helped forge her daughter’s strong sense of empathy and compassion. She recalls, for example, when Kaitlyn offered assurance and comfort to her grandmother upon seeing her postoperative wound for the first time. “Oh, Grandma,” Kaitlyn said, “that’s not so bad.”
The regular visits to Park Bend might also have influenced Kaitlyn’s decision to pursue a career in healthcare. Kaitlyn recalls being around medical staff from a very early age. She always found their work interesting and enjoyed watching them provide care. Her observations taught her that nurses generally get to know patients better than physicians do and that they are frequently the primary source of encouragement to patients.
These attributes are what eventually drew Kaitlyn to nursing. “Everyone should have someone who lights up the dark path for them,” she said. “As a nurse, I will be that source of light for patients who have lost hope and faith.”
Kaitlyn’s return to Park Bend has made her feel connected to her grandmother, who passed in 2009. Familiar places can have that effect. Though Kaitlyn may not have recognized the name of the facility, she remembered its spaces. And those spaces rekindled decades-old memories.
“When I arrived for clinicals,” she said, “I knew which rooms and hallways Grandma had been in. I played dominos in those rooms and walked those hallways many times.”
Kaitlyn is a graduate of Rouse High School in Leander, Texas, and holds a bachelor of science in biology from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton.
Before joining the accelerated second-degree nursing program at ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ University, Kaitlyn worked as an anesthesia technician at an Ascension Seton Medical Center. That position provided her the opportunity to observe various healthcare professionals in action. Because family is paramount, Kaitlyn wanted a career in which she could prioritize a healthy work-life balance. Nursing seemed to satisfy that requirement to the greatest extent.
Kaitlyn began ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ’s nursing program in May, a year after the University expanded into Austin. She is a member of the campus’s third cohort. When she graduates next year with a bachelor of science degree in nursing, she will be eligible to sit for the licensure exam to become a registered nurse.
Until that time, Kaitlyn will continue to practice providing the highest level of compassionate care to patients in her clinical rotation at Park Bend Health Center, the very place that rehabilitated her grandmother all those years ago. To be sure, Nancy Key would be proud.
