Sun, Jul 05, 2009
 Registered nurse Ana P. Marin, right, administers treatment to a patient in the intensive care unit at University Medical Center — just one of her many nursing roles. She also volunteers widely for a variety of non-profit groups, including on a current medical mission to Colombia. For her efforts, Marin has received a number of top nursing awards.
Jill Torrance / Arizona Daily Star
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Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.06.2008
In a career that increasingly sees more demand than supply of workers, and where burnout is high, Ana P. Marin could be considered a super-nurse.
The University Medical Center trauma nurse has been a registered nurse for 18 years, her entire working life.
In between administering medications, taking blood and changing bedpans, Marin managed to help create a hospitalwide bereavement program that has earned her national notice.
When she isn't doing 12-hour shifts on "Five West" — the hospital's 16-bed intensive-care unit for trauma patients — she donates her nursing skills and uses her vacation time for a variety of non-profit groups.
On Tuesday, Marin, who speaks fluent Spanish, left Tucson for a one-week Operation Smile mission in Cali, Colombia. Operation Smile sends medical missions around the world to treat children with cleft palates and other facial deformities.
Though nursing is a job typically performed away from any limelight, Marin recently earned a hefty dose of recognition for her dedication.
Not only did the national NurseWeek magazine give her an excellence award last month for the Southwest region, but the March of Dimes honored her in August as an Arizona Nurse of the Year, calling her a "nurse humanitarian."
She also recently published an article about global health in a national New Jersey-based publication called MEDSURG Nursing.
A bit of an overachiever?
Perhaps, but Marin, 42, doesn't appear to see it that way. She doesn't aspire to management and has never wanted to be a physician like some of the other nurses she's met over the years. She simply enjoys what she does.
"I thought about getting my master's, but I love being a bedside nurse," said Marin, who moved to Arizona from New York 16 years ago to work at UMC.
Marin's patients on Five West include people recovering from gunshot wounds, serious car crashes, severe head injuries and major surgery.
She's seen young people paralyzed by random mishaps and others whose lives are permanently changed because of an accident. Some don't make it.
Those experiences — watching the grief of families who lose loved ones to trauma — inspired Marin and fellow nurse Pam Spencer to create a program for people in mourning. Together, they co-chair UMC's bereavement committee.
"She is exceptionally dedicated and loves what she does. I've seen a lot of burnout, but never with her," said Spencer, a registered nurse in the pediatric intensive-care unit at UMC.
"She's one of the most giving people I've ever met in life — both within and outside the profession."
For the past six years, anyone who loses a loved one at UMC has received a bereavement kit.
"All we used to have was a list of funeral homes," Marin noted.
The kit includes local and national resources for dealing with grief, and a "Mourner's Bill of Rights" with 10 credos, such as, "You have the right to search for meaning," and "You have the right to treasure your memories."
About 600 people died at the hospital in 2007, and their friends and family members all had access to Marin and Spencer's program, which includes the option of receiving plaster impressions of their loved ones' hands — a program that first became popular in UMC's pediatrics unit.
At the anniversary of a patient's death, Marin has ensured that families receive a "thinking of you" card from the unit where the patient was hospitalized.
She has also worked with the Donor Network of Arizona to connect with families of patients who have died and gone on to become organ donors, and has coordinated ceremonies to honor the families.
On the job, Marin is in charge of nurses on Five West, where she's worked for 13 years. She has reached Level 4 — the highest a nurse can achieve — on UMC's nursing scale. Only eight other nurses at the hospital have that status.
"She found gaps in care and worked toward solutions," fellow nurse Kara Snyder wrote in her nominating letter for Marin's March of Dimes award. "Her patients, their families, and kids around the state and around the world are better for being in the care of this nurse. She has demonstrated to her colleagues what volunteerism really is."
About 1,389 nurses work at UMC. Their hourly pay scale ranges from $24.50 to $53.19. It's not a bad salary, though it pales in comparison with the salaries of the doctors they work with. Still, given the demand, nurses can work pretty much wherever they want and can also set their own hours.
"I always knew I wanted to be a nurse," said Marin, a native of Queens, N.Y., who earned her degree at the City College of New York. "I think we make more of a positive impact on patients. We are able to spend more time with them than the physicians."
She said a faith in God also helps her, particularly in coping with the reality that some patients are able to rebound from devastating medical problems, while others don't.
Her experience on Five West has also been instructive — it has motivated her to have a living will and appoint a power of attorney in case she becomes incapacitated.
"I've learned basic life lessons — enjoy life, live it to the fullest and as if it's your last day," she said. "Things change in such an instant."
It's not always fun. In her 18 years in the profession, she's noticed patients have become sicker — likely a result of improved medications and treatments that are keeping people alive.
The profession can also be physically exhausting, and she advises that anyone who isn't comfortable with "poop, throw-up and blood" might not do too well in the profession.
Some patients are demanding — she's been yelled at and hit.
Despite those downsides, Marin's signature is the "compassion and happiness" she brings to work every day, Snyder said.
"In the midst of crisis, she maintains a pleasant demeanor," the nominating letter says.
And Marin notes that she finds far more patients who are appreciative than angry.
In addition to Operation Smile, Marin is an active volunteer with Camp Not-a-Wheeze — a camp in Prescott for kids with asthma. She also volunteers with a Phoenix-based bereavement program for children and families called Stepping Stones of Hope, which holds camps in Cave Creek and Payson.
"I'm an adult nurse, but I do pediatric work in my time off. It's wonderful," Marin said last Monday as she worked her shift on Five West. "They've tried to convince me to do pediatrics here at the hospital, but I have a hard time seeing children chronically ill."
A typical workweek for Marin consists of three 12-hour shifts on Five West, plus occasional extra 12-hour shifts as a clinical supervisor, which means she's the top clinical person on nights and weekends.
Marin's medical missionary work has taken her around the globe, to places such as Nicaragua, Honduras and India.
But soon Marin, who is single, will be cutting back on her travels — she will be adopting a baby boy.
● Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or at sinnes@azstarnet.com.
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