We nominated Jane last year. She very much deserved the award and did not get it. She will ALWAYS be a GREAT NURSE and FRIEND!! Jane Sepe- Great 100 Nomination Jane has been a Speaker/Facilitator, and on the planning committee, and taught Breastfeeding 101 at the Art of Breastfeeding conference for about 15 years. In 2007 Jane had breast cancer that was treated with surgery, chemo, and radiation. Since that time she has participated in several ways to promote breast caner research and healthy living. She has collected money for the St. Badrick Foundation to raise money for childrens cancer research and her son( who is also a nurse) shaved his head for it. Jane raises $2,000 for the 26.2 With Donna Marathon for Cancer Research in 2011. Jane, also, wrote a testimonial in the book Nurses in Shape by Helene Neville who had brain cancer 3 times and then ran across the country. Jane has the past few months found out that her cancer has come back in her bones. Jane has recently had chemo which made her very sick and she was in ICU for a while. Jane is now doing much better and is very much wanting to get stronger so she can continue to care for people. As a result of this, Jane feels she has been given a gift and a calling to go out and find ways to help people where ever she can as soon as she can. One of her managers wrote:I have worked with Jane Sepe first for several years (at a pediatricians office) while she was a RN there working with children and their families. She is one of the most compassionate, caring nurses I have ever known. She was always finding ways to keep the children laughing and smiling. She had a puppet she always brought out when needed to play with the children. She taught lactation classes during this time also. She would make our new moms feel so comfortable and was always available to help them with lactation concerns. She would even help them by phone when out of the office!! Unfortunately Jane was diagnosed with breast cancer and was unable to continue there. She conquered her cancer though! Here we are 4 yrs later and being in a manger role, Jane called me and asked to be considered for a position in the new clinic. She said she really missed the clinical area and wanted to return. She joined our staff in November and was here to open our new clinic. She continues to be one of the most caring and compassionate nurse to her patients. She has recently been diagnosed with cancer again and in the short time she worked here she has built a bond with her coworkers and earned our respect. Even during a recent hospitalization she was concerned about how quick she could return to her work. She has tremendous courage and strength!! One of our nursing assistants wrote, “I am writing to give Jane praise for all that she has taught me about cancer while going through with my mother-in-law. When my mother-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer Jane was always one that I could turn to for answers about what was happening. Just to name some of the things she would tell me what to expect as far as her chemotherapy and radiation. I asked her about the breast cancer sleeve and she took the time out to explain the sleeve and where I could buy one for my mother-in-law. Jane is a all around wonderful person and I really hate to see her go through such terrible illness. Jane is one that is never too busy for questions.” Another manager wrote: Jane is very dedicated to patients. She always sits down to talk to them so she is not “standing over them.” She volunteered to pilot a program of providing lactation assistance in the evenings to new mothers. She has helped educate staff and others in the community by participating in the breastfeeding 101 sessions for Art of Breastfeeding. She receives excellent comments on her class evaluations. Comments from class participants include: great teacher; good presentation skills and made me feel comfortable as the husband; awesome presenter; very informative and personable; enthusiastic and bubbly; instructor is very knowledgeable and friendly. Staff nurses comment about how wonderful she is to them and their patients in helping with breastfeeding. She never hesitates to give suggestions during problem solving. She has a strong desire for moms to be successful at breastfeeding and is very support of moms whatever their choice for nutrition for their baby. She is relaxed, has a great sense of humor and appreciates the little things. While leaving work one day, there was a man in the lobby with his head in his hands. He looked sad. Jane looked at him and said “What can we do for you?” The man responded sadly, “You can pray.” He was too choked up to tell Jane what was wrong but she began to pray for his loved one and his family. She never hesitated to minister to someone who was in need. Jane always finds something positive to say, looks for the best in people, shows creativity and energy in the way she interacts with patients and families, shows honesty and integrity in all she does. A colleague wrote: I would certainly say that Jane was a role model for her son who grew up being influenced by his mother’s work as a nurse and who chose nursing as a profession. Just saying that her son chose to become a nurse is a statement of high praise as far as I am concerned. Jane has often taken the extra time to sit down with a patient and let the patient talk about other concerns that may have only been indirectly linked to patient care. Jane has brushed and braided a patient’s hair to help them relax, she has given shoulder massages to calm frazzled nerves, she has gone to the cafeteria and bought a soda for a father who was worried, she has sung lullabies to fretful babies. She came to work on Christmas Day (even when it was not her turn) several times in a row so that her colleagues did not have to or so that their workload would be lighter. She volunteered to work in a pilot to provide patient care at off hours when she realized there was need. She helped nurses working during that off shift to gain confidence in their skills while she helped them with her knowledge and expertise. I would state that Jane is a storyteller. She relates how her experiences, her patients’ experiences, and a positive outlook on life make even the most difficult situations bearable. I have seen her with her arm around a patient letting them talk through their fears and concerns. She uses humor to keep things interesting and is not afraid to ask – well, what to you think? Maybe we can try this a different way. She has boosted her colleagues when things were not going well. She is a peacemaker who can talk to anyone and make any family feel like they are the most important family ever! I would say her compassion is evident in all she does, whether she is laughing with a patient or crying with a patient, whether she is telling stories to a colleague or reflecting on how she could do things better. This was written by a housekeeping lady that told me how much Jane helped her. Ms. Jane is a Fantastic Nurse. She not only cares deeply for her patients, but for her co-workers as well. I have worked with Ms. Jane for a long time and we saw each other frequently. While dealing with my own health issues, she would stop talking about herself and ask, Are you OK?. She sensed when I was not feeling well and listened to my problems. We often would cry together and talk until we began to laugh. She has helped me so many times when I was sick, depressed or angry. She is the most unselfish person I have ever met. I call her my Angel of Excellence. Jane has such a giving heart. She has used her nursing skills in a variety of ways outside Lactation. Jane volunteered in giving free physicals for 3 years to children of Belarus, Russia who were exposed to tremendous amount of radio active fallout from the explosion of the nuclear plant in Chernobyl. Numerous kids are flown over to the US for free full physicals, immunizations, and hearing tests. Over the years, Jane has worked in a variety of areas of nursing. She has been a childbirth/Lamaze educator, worked pediatrics, med/surg, emergency, urgent care, lactation, and as an pediatric asthma educator. She has shown versatility in the way she shows skills in a different nursing settings. Another colleague wrote:Jane volunteered to assist with teaching the clinical hands-on role-play portion of the pre-conference course “Breastfeeding 101” for the Art of Breastfeeding Conference, a regional three-day conference attended by 200 – 300 participants each year. She taught from 8:00 AM until 3:30 PM along with 12 other Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultants who received no money for their work. Her reward was the good feelings that are the result of playing a part in the preparation of the next generation of people helping breastfeeding families. She earned fine reviews from her students and was asked to return year after year. In a similar vein, Jane Sepe also volunteered to help for many years with the annual Lactation Consultant Comprehensive Review. She worked for no compensation for four hours during this five-day course to provide the mentoring needed for small groups to solve breastfeeding ”problems” with Jane role-playing the mothers with various clinical situations. Again, her evaluations were excellent and people felt they grew in their knowledge and skill-sets because of Jane. Here is what another colleague said about Jane:, Jane Sepe is a gifted and compassionate nurse who always gives more than 100% of herself to her patients and her colleagues. I first met her when we both started work as Lactation Consultants in newly created positions in 1995. I was a novice and Jane quickly became my mentor as she had vast experience in the role. What I learned most was in observing her with patients and families. She can walk into a room and immediately put the new mother and everyone else at ease. Her caring attitude and genuine concern for every mother and baby shine through in her words and actions. She has a great sense of humor and is able to use it to break down any barriers in communication with patients and families. Through the years, I was especially impressed at her skills in working with teen mothers. While many nurses and LCs have the attitude that teenagers are not serious about breastfeeding, Jane seemed to have a different perspective. She could skillfully communicate with young mothers and gain their confidence in a matter of minutes; on several occasions, I saw her sit on the bed right beside the young breastfeeding mother, calming anxiety, educating, and assisting the mother to feed her baby. She was a cheerleader for these young mothers and many others who were having breastfeeding problems From Jane, I learned how to respond to concerns and questions voiced by mothers who called in the hospital for advice on breastfeeding. She taught me how to assist mothers who came in as outpatients with breastfeeding concerns. I also witnessed how Jane mentored other lactation consultants and nurses in the Birth Center, making a significant difference in the care that is provided to breastfeeding mothers. She served for several years with me on the planning committee for the Art of Breastfeeding Conference, an annual meeting. She spoke at the conference and received rave reviews about her presentations. Not only is she a skilled lactation consultant, Jane never forgets that she is first, a nurse. Jane always goes beyond what is expected in her job. For example, on a busy day, when we used to admit all newborns to the nursery for assessments and baths, Jane would finish seeing the breastfeeding mothers, and volunteer to assist the RNs in the nursery. She would jump right in, assisting the nurses with whatever needed to be done. On many occasions, her keen assessment skills allowed her to recognize subtle signs that a baby was not doing well. In my opinion, Jane is most deserving of recognition as a Great 100 nurse. I think Jane said it best when she said, I LOVE nursing! and she LOVES people, and she shows it in everything she does and by totally giving of herself every way to patients, families, friends, and associates.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 02:24:05 +0000
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