Health Care Hero: Albert Martinez

Licensed vocational nurse Albert Martinez adds a little cheer to patient Michael Carlee's day.

Sometimes brightening a long-term care patient’s day takes a fart joke – really, says Albert Martinez, a licensed vocational nurse at the DeWitt Subacute & Skilled Nursing Center.

Martinez, 46, says he draws on all the interpersonal skills he has learned as a father, grandfather and factory supervisor to connect with his patients. Most of his patients are brain-injured from trauma accidents or were born severely disabled.

“They tell us these people are in comas, but no way. They laugh, they’ve got feelings,” Martinez says. “And I can get them laughing by telling fart jokes – especially one gal who will get to giggling and giggling.”

Martinez has worked for Community Medical Centers six years and gets to know his patients well, learning what brings a smile or an eye-roll to a normally unresponsive face. It takes a special nurse to work at DeWitt, one as skilled as Martinez is in forging relationships, one who has patience and knows his or her job is to bring a bit of joy – not complete healing – to the patients.

“Hospital staff likes to heal patients,” Martinez says. “It’s heal you. Next. Heal you. Next. But these people here don’t go home. You really have to have the devotion and caring to do this – and I do.”

Martinez said his co-workers have that same kind of commitment and caring personality so they “all click as a team.” He calls his current job rewarding and a blessing.

Martinez says he took a round-about career path from studying landscape architecture in college to supervising at a Foster Farms plant and ending up as a licensed vocational nurse. He jokes, “I tell people I went up the chain. I worked with plants, went up to chickens and now I work with people.”

It was an accident at the poultry-processing plant that propelled Martinez into nursing, he says. A woman working on the production line had the ends of two fingers severed after getting them stuck in a chain. Martinez was supervising that shift. “I saw a different side of me when I just shifted into directing people to call 911 and get maintenance to cut her out,” he explains. “I comforted her and it felt good that I could help her.”

This story was reported by Erin Kennedy. She can be reached at ekennedy@communitymedical.org.

Friday, May 09, 2008