Nurse reflects on 40 years in career

By MICAH HENRY

Taylorsville native Kim Pennell, RN, BSN, age 63, has seen a thing or two in her long career as a nurse. Recently, she was challenged to set down her experiences in a book for the encouragement of others, including young nurses entering the profession.

Entitled A Nurse I Am… Because Of Whose I Am, Kim’s book is “a heartfelt and inspiring memoir” as she “shares more than four decades of experience serving patients, families, and fellow caregivers,” the book jacket notes.

After reading the book, one could say it is as much a devotional writing as a memoir.

Kim’s story flows smoothly and begins with her first shift as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) in 1986 and earning Registered Nurse (RN) status the following year. She recounts her early months working at a local nursing home, then her move to working at Alexander County Hospital as an RN in the Emergency Room, Medical-Surgical, and Critical Care Unit areas of the facility.

In a flashback, she recalls her formative years as a girl, the third of four children born to the late Donald “Ned” Pennell, Sr., and Lillian Pennell, growing up in a loving home. Kim became a Christian at the age of eight, when she asked the Lord to come into her heart as her Savior.

She was almost expected to enter factory work, like her older siblings, but didn’t want to. Kim wanted to go to college. Her father was in favor of it but her mother was not as supportive. The biggest obstacle was that there was no money for college. A painful breakup with her fiancé was an impetus to go out on her own and pursue a college degree.

Kim began working as a waitress and later in a retail store in order to pursue her nursing degree. While on the waiting list for nursing school, she obtained a degree in nuclear medicine but failed her certification exam. Kim took two years off from school to work retail and pay back school loans while she waited to get in the nursing program. She graduated from Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute with her Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) licensure in 1986 and Registered Nurse–Associate Degree (RN–ADN) in 1987 passing her board exams on the first attempt. Her LPN pay more than doubled her salary at the retail store, as she began making about $8 an hour.

Kim has relied on the Lord to sustain and guide her through her career, prayerfully examining her different job moves. Most of her career involved her work as a nurse at Catawba Memorial Hospital, now known as Catawba Valley Medical Center. She knew she had found her home at Catawba when she saw how they thoughtfully recognized their peers with Employee of the Month honors and a friendly atmosphere. Plus, she was hired on the same day she interviewed with the hospital.

Kim goes on to recount her experience being there when her father died at the hospital and how it affected her.

“I learned a new skill through it all — empathy. Until that day, I had never sat in that consultation room and been told my loved one was gone. Now, though I can’t tell someone I know how they feel, I can say I have been where they are and that I am sorry. Usually, I have found that saying I’m sorry and just being present is what someone grieving needs most of all,” Kim wrote.

She also goes on to relate other personal milestones, both triumphs and losses.

Time after time, Kim has seen the hand of the Lord at work, sometimes connecting her with patients or acquaintances fifteen, twenty, or thirty years later, when she could once again provide medical care and a measure of emotional support to them, too.

She soon found her niche in the Labor and Delivery unit of the hospital. Although Kim could not bear children herself, she helped countless hundreds of mothers deliver their babies into this world.

Small, but spunky, Kim has followed her heart and faith in dealing with many large tasks in nursing — patients depressed due to health issues, family losing loved ones who were her patients, mothers whose babies were stillborn, a myriad of healthcare changes due to COVID, and more.

Through it all, Kim has clung to her faith in the Lord and shared that faith with others.

God has clearly given Kim the desire, strength, and courage to be a blessing to so many patients, family members, and friends during her career.

Now retired from bedside nursing, she continues to serve in different ways.

Kim teaches nursing clinicals to new nurses for Mitchell Community College at Catawba Valley Medical Center. Coming from a time early in her career with white, dress, white hose, white shoes, and white cap, when patient charts were recorded with 4-color ink pens, she now teaches a generation of nurses who sometimes need instruction in “how important things like eye contact, body language, and practicing simply listening to another person are in the healing process.”

In her words, she is “sharing with a new generation of future nurses that there is one skill that cannot be taught and can never be replaced with a device—the skill of compassion. A nurse who does not communicate with their patient cannot show them compassion. I believe that the skill of compassion is the heart of a nurse, and without it, you are as useless as a carpenter without a hammer. I thank God for opening this door for me,” she wrote.

In addition to teaching nurses, Kim was recently asked to design and teach a prenatal course at Caring Hearts Pregnancy Center, a Christian outreach in Taylorsville. She titled the 8-week course “Baby In Bloom.”

In all, A Nurse I Am… Because Of Whose I Am is a fast, uplifting read which will speak to people of both medical and non-medical backgrounds. Her prayer is that all who read this book will be blessed and seek God in finding their purpose in His plan.

The book is available on Amazon at https://a.co/d/09BNNEet. Kim hopes to have one or more booksignings in the near future.

Disclosure statement: Kim Pennell is the sister of Times’ Sports Editor Donny Pennell.