At a young age, Myra Reid-Baker witnessed first-hand the incredible impact a healthcare professional can have on a family. She watched as several family members received medical care in a variety of settings and her interest was piqued for life. While Myra was in high school, she prepared for her healthcare career by taking as many “Health Care Occupation” courses as she could, and within two years of her graduation, she entered the nursing workforce as a Nursing Assistant.
Myra spent nine years as a nursing assistant and along the way picked up courses to achieve her ultimate goal of becoming a Registered Nurse. All told, Myra has been in the healthcare profession for 25 years, the past 16 years as an RN.
“I have experience working in a variety of clinical settings,” she explains. “I’ve worked in mental health, prisons, long term care facilities, trauma centers, and community hospitals.”
Her skills, coupled with her innate desire to provide the best quality of care contribute to Myra being recognized for her contributions to quality standards. A recent incident at Vidant Medical Center (VMC) highlights Myra’s alertness, and her attention to detail prevented a potential medication error. Myra noticed a discrepancy between the label on medication that was brought in by a Transplant-Trauma Surgical Intermediate Unit patient and what the patient was verbally reporting to the staff. She alerted the attending physician, and it was discovered that the patient’s neurologist had recently changed the dose frequency, although it hadn’t yet been updated in the medical history. Myra’s actions helped avoid a prescribing error, and she was subsequently recognized in the VMC Quality Indicator Tracking Report!
Myra is dedicated to her profession and knows how little things can go a long way toward making a patient’s stay at the hospital more pleasant for all involved. One of Myra’s patients was a high schooler who was going to be unable to attend their graduation. Upon learning of this, Myra worked behind the scenes to organize a special party for the student. While out of the room at physical therapy, Myra coordinated efforts to decorate the room and had the student’s friends and family waiting for a makeshift graduation party upon their return from therapy. That is a shining example of Supplemental Health Care’s “Care More” attitude and spirit!
As Myra explains it, she was just doing what comes naturally, “I love my job. Just seeing the patient make progress and have positive outcomes, and knowing that I played a role in their healing process is what it is all about for me.”
