Inspire, Spring 2011

in the chest or abdomen, patients tend to take short, shallow breaths because deep breaths can hurt. We discourage shallow breathing because it can cause fluid to build up and lead to pneumonia. What can you tell us about the overall recovery process? Under average circumstances, a patient will be hospitalized for five to seven days. He or she will be restricted from heavy lifting for six weeks and can return to work approximately two months after the surgery. Those who are dealing with coronary disease will likely begin cardiac rehabilitation six to eight weeks after surgery. What advice do you have for family members caring for recovering loved ones? After the surgery, family members should encourage patients to eat as much nutritious food as they can, even if they will need to lose weight later on. Caloric needs of a critically ill person are several times higher than caloric needs of a healthy person because the body uses energy to heal wounds. As for patients who have returned home, don’t let them sit and watch TV all day. Maintaining activity will speed the healing process. How did Cedarville prepare you for this work? The emphasis on bioethics and the application of biblical principles to nursing were very helpful. Ethical issues come up frequently in a setting like this, forcing patients, families, and medical professionals to consider complex issues. For example, advanced life-support technology can blur the line between life and death. It is sometimes possible to indefinitely sustain a person on a life-support machine. That’s when we face difficult questions like, “Is this what the patient would want?” and “Is this a good use of resources?” Cedarville helped me build a foundation to make sense of those questions. What advice do you have for students planning to enter the field of nursing? I encourage current and future students to saturate themselves with the Word of God, allowing it to permeate every aspect of their lives. They need to develop and crystallize their biblical worldview and know how to defend it. The health care system is a very secularized culture, so knowing what you believe and why you believe it is important. Tom knows that sorting out beliefs becomes a sudden priority for many of his patients, too, especially when they are facing major surgery. After five years spent helping people through this journey at the medical center, Tom has become invested in his patients’ success. And seeing critically ill patients return to health is one of the highlights of his job. “They come back in a month or two, and I won’t even recognize them, because they’ve gotten so much better,” he said. “It’s pretty satisfying.” Tom Lawson ’01, M.S., RN, ACNP-BC, is a nurse practitioner at the Ross Heart Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, part of The Ohio State University Medical Center. You may contact him at thomas.lawson@osumc.com . Hohna Hartley is a freelance writer who lives in Richmond Hill, Georgia. You may contact her at hohnahartley@yahoo.com . Cedarville University 23