Meeting Patients Where They Are – UNC Nash Nursing Assistant Offers Hope and Healing

The isolation unit at UNC Health Nash has become an essential part of the hospital’s operations, established to care for patients battling various infectious diseases. In healthcare, the term “isolation” refers to the types of precautions that patients, staff members and visitors must take to “isolate” or prevent the spread or transmission of infections and diseases in a particular room or area. This means wearing additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and keeping the doors closed. Each room in the 30-bed unit features negative pressure filtration designed to remove contaminated, airborne particles, and enhances the hospital’s ability to better treat a broad range of infectious respiratory and contact-based illnesses.

It can be difficult for patients admitted to the unit, with some even facing frightening, life-threatening circumstances. But for staff members like Tasha Clark, UNC Nash Nursing Assistant, it is their mission to connect with patients, address their needs and ensure they receive the physical and emotional care they need throughout their journey.

While the unit’s protocols are critical to save lives through careful treatment of the body and disease process, patients also need sincere reassurance, honest compassion and real, in-touch humanity—something that can only be provided by staff members who care for each patient’s mental, emotional and physical health, while also connecting patients with the resources they need to heal. According to all who have worked with her, this is where Clark has found her calling.

Clark began her career at Nash in the Float Pool, a group of staff members who “float” around to assist various areas, rather than being assigned to a specific unit. During her time in the float pool, Clark was highly regarded for her “empathy, gentleness, and dependability.” Float Pool Manager Amy Dew proudly describes Clark as a committed team player, and says that she would “accept her assignments with grace, no matter where in the hospital they would send her.”

Clark would eventually begin floating to the Isolation unit, where it became apparent that she had a gift for working with that patient population. Undaunted by the high-stakes environment, she took to her duties with a steady, positive attitude, and genuinely sought to lift her patients’ spirits. The Isolation team recognized how great Clark’s impact was, and how well she fit in with the team. Eventually, they would ask her to join them full-time.

"Most of the unit team members have been there from the start because they're able to rise to the unique occasion," said Lee Thompson, Isolation Assistant Nurse Manager. "The cohesiveness of the personnel is natural and incredible. Their approach to care is purposeful and focused. Tasha exuded this culture by taking the time to get to know her patients, to make them feel seen, heard and supported. That's someone we wanted to keep on the team."

Clark quickly blended in as if she was always meant to be part of the close-knit team.

“She has never met a stranger,” said Kimberly Winders, Isolation Assistant Nurse Manager. “She is always quick to offer a helping hand. She is charismatic, welcoming, and, most of all, compassionate. Isolation is blessed to be able to have Tasha Clark.”

Just when the isolation unit thought they were fortunate to have her, Clark would reveal a passionate work ethic was not all she brought to the table. Truly going above and beyond, she began willfully advocating for the personal needs of her patients before and after they’ve left her care. This led to the establishment of a clothing closet specifically for isolation patients, and a partnership with the UNC Health Nash Foundation to connect and provide them with much needed resources to improve their health outcomes.

"Patients sometimes come to Nash with very little, and unfortunately many of them will discharge and go right back to having very little," Thompson explained. "It's often due to a lack of resources that a patient's condition deteriorates after discharge, as the stress of finding these resources takes away from their focus on their health. Realizing that clothing was a need she could personally and easily address, Tasha began collecting clothes and bringing them to the unit, so that patients such as these could re-enter the world comfortable and dignified.”

Clark has since inspired her team members to get to know their patients on a meaningful level, discovering what they can do to help them the most. Today this initiative is an ongoing, collaborative effort, which has resulted in the creation of a diverse collection of clothing and other needed items, bolstered by their partnership with the UNC Nash Foundation to address a wider range of patient assistance needs.

“You have to communicate with your patients,” said Clark. “You have to know their story, because if you don’t then you really don’t know what they need, and you won’t know how to help them. Everybody here helps each other—that’s just what we do.”

Are you looking to make an impact on others like Tasha Clark does? Please consider donating to the UNC Health Nash Foundation. By partnering with the Foundation, you can help vulnerable patients receive the resources they need to focus on their healing journey. For more information or to donate, visit the UNC Health Nash Foundation’s website at www.unchealthnashfoundation.org or contact Kathleen Fleming at kathleen.fleming@unchealth.unc.edu or 252-962-8583.