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Network: June/July 2007
Weekend Warrior: Experienced Nurse Chooses Home Care
 Most people look forward to the weekend for a little down time, but as Friday approaches, Dorothy Ingram, RN, feels energized. As a nurse with Sentara Home Care Services – Hampton, Ingram works full-time Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
On the Road Again
Rarely needing to go into the office, the 51-year-old nurse’s days are spent on the road-visiting patients in Hampton and Newport News. When her last visit of the day is complete, she heads home to complete her paperwork, sometimes working on her laptop late into the night.
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“I really enjoy my job,” she said. “I go out and meet the patients and work with the families. My schedule changes every week. Probably the biggest part of my job is trying to teach the families how to take care of the symptoms the patient is having and how to prevent further problems.”
While Ingram chose a career in nursing early on, her decision to embrace home care, came later.
First Impression Counts
“When I was 11 years old my father got sick with pneumonia and I thought he was going to die,” she recalled. “He was taken to the hospital (Sentara Hampton General) and I was so impressed with the way they took care of him, that from then on I knew I wanted to be a nurse and I wanted to work there.”
In 1980, Ingram began working as an LPN in the orthopedic and neurosurgery units of Sentara Hampton General, now Sentara CarePlex Hospital. After seven years in orthopedics, she moved to the Medical Surgical Unit for three years, followed by a one-year stint in Intensive Care.
Path to RN
While in ICU, she took advantage of Sentara’s tuition reimbursement program and went back to school to get her RN degree from Regent College of New York.
“Between orthopedics and ICU, I think working in the different areas of the hospital made it easy for me to go through school. I breezed through. While I was working in the ICU, I kept hearing about home care and I didn’t know what that was...”
Upon finishing her RN degree, Ingram found out. She went to work for a non-Sentara affiliated home care agency for a few years, transferring to Sentara Home Care Services in 1993. Working in home care gave her the flexibility she needed when her husband, Stan Cleveland, who served as head of security in the 1980s at Sentara Hampton General Hospital, became ill and lost his battle with lung cancer in 1999.
Home Care in the Sunshine State
Four years later, still enjoying her work with home care, she met and married Robert Ingram and relocated to Florida. After a few years, the couple returned to Hampton Roads; and Ingram returned to the same job she left at Sentara Home Care Services. She has witnessed its growth through the years ― today, serving more than 5,000 patients a year.
Growing, Innovative, Progressive
“We opened two new branch offices in Richmond this year, for a total of seven in all,” said Ray Darcey, Vice President, Sentara Enterprises. “In addition to expanding our service area, we continue to use cutting edge technology to improve our patients’ quality of life. From our Telehealth Program to treat asthma and congestive heart failure to our Home-Based Sickle Cell Management Program, we offer an innovative and progressive range of services to patients and families who choose to receive nursing care in the comfort of their homes.”
Ingram agreed. “One of the reasons I went back to Sentara Home Care Services was because they were doing a lot of new things…IV, wound care, a lot of teaching, using new equipment and technology. “
27 Years and Counting
While most of her patients do well and recover from their ailments – frequently joint replacement surgery, wound care or complications from diabetes – this home care nurse knows firsthand she cannot be complacent.
“You never know what you’ll come across,” she said. “While you have the support of your team, you visit patients one on one, so you have to be prepared. Twice I had to do CPR when I arrived at a patient’s home. My background helps me feel prepared for just about anything.”
And, her enthusiasm ― even as she approaches her 28th year in nursing ― does the rest.
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