Elizabeth A. Hale, MSN, APRN

I always take the time to listen to a patient’s agenda and their questions—not just what I'm there to accomplish. It’s important to pay attention to the patient and what their concerns are. I try to be relatable with patients, sharing my experiences with my own family. They see that I'm right in the thick of it with them. I'm not merely trying to explain things I’ve been taught, but from my own life experience. For all of us it's a learning process.

The reason I became a nurse was because I grew up with my mom having heart disease. I wanted to go to school and understand what everyone at the hospital was doing to help her. I worked my way up from working in the kitchen at Springfield Hospital, then working as a nurse. My colleagues encouraged me to take the next step to being a nurse practitioner. I grew up in this community, and it's nice to live here and give back to the community. I like running into patients when I'm out and about.

For me, a successful outcome is setting a goal with patients and then helping them take the steps to reach that goal. They’re going to have the hills and valleys before they get there, but they need to be persistent. I like to look outside the box and try to relate to people where they're at and with what resources they have.