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Member Spotlight

Dana Lusk, RN, BSN, CRRN

 Chapter Secretary

Current Employment:      TIRR Systems.

Position:                              Occupational Health Nurse/ Human Resources Specialist.

Dana assists ill and injured workers to reach maximum health and productivity.  This is accomplished by providing case management to the TIRR System employee by coordinating health care services across multiple systems from the onset of injury or illness to a safe return to work or optimal alternative.  She is also responsible for developing and administering the occupational and environmental health and safety services of TIRR Systems as well as employee wellness and disability management (Absentee management, Medical leaves, FMLA, ADA, etc).

ARN Member since:                             2000

SETX Chapter ARN Member:            2000

SETX Chapter ARN Involvement: Chapter Secretary (Board Position)      2003-2004

                                                                Education (Expo/Fundraiser)                 2004

                                                                Legislative Committee                            2004

  

Why did you decide to join SETX Chapter ARN?

The mentorship of other rehabilitation and case management nurses as well as the educational opportunities are important.

Community Involvement:              Camp Nurse for Camp Extreme

Camp Extreme is a sports camp for kids with dis(ABILITIES).  Dana is looking forward to spending another week with the kids this year in July!  Dana was also a Hospice Nurse for a brief period of time and has since done some volunteering to play music for hospice patients.

Hobbies and Special Interests:       

Dana writes, “My first love is music.  Before I joined the army and took the healthcare path, I was a music major in college.  I often joke and tell people that nursing is my “day job” and that I am really a musician.  I am currently a member of a traditional Irish band called Echoes of Ireland.  I play a traditional wooden Irish flute as well as whistles and the modern silver flute.  My next love is sewing and quilting.  I find sewing to be very therapeutic during stressful times.

Previous Experience:

Dana began her healthcare career 22 years ago as a medic/laboratory technician in microbiology in the US ARMY.  After active duty she joined the Army Reserves and went to nursing school on a Veteran’s scholarship program.  Dana graduated in 1988 and worked as a pediatric and neonatal ICU nurse while continuing to serve in the Army Reserves.  During the Gulf War, she was called into active duty and served 9 months. 

Dana writes, “ When I returned I used my combined experience in Microbiology and nursing and landed my first job as an Infection Control/Employee-Occupational Health Nurse.  While I was working for the next 6 years I was living with Menier’s disease and experiencing gradual hearing loss.  In 1997, I became disabled with continuous unstoppable vertigo and lost all functional hearing in my right ear and began losing minimal hearing in my left ear.  As a result, I had a craniotomy to sever the vestibular branch of the acoustical nerve.  I had also, in the previous year experienced “on the job harassment and discrimination” as a result of my hearing loss.  When I had recovered from my craniotomy and was able to work again, I was gun shy looking for a job after the experience I had with harassment.  Well, my good friend Betty Clark (another ARN member) told me that she works for a rehabilitation hospital (TIRR) and ADA is a way of life there and that I needed to apply for a job.  Well, I did just that, and I was offered a position as a staff nurse in the Brain Injury Program four years ago.  That was how I began my life as a rehabilitation nurse.  Betty was absolutely right about not sensing the pain of feeling inferior to co-workers because of my hearing loss.  Rehabilitation nurses have an instinctive way of bringing out the best in people by not allowing a disability to get in the way.  Most of the nurses and technicians understood that if I did not respond to a statement or question, it was not because I was being rude (as I have been accused of in other work places), but because I didn’t hear them.  Now the amazing end of this story is that I am now back to doing what I love most in nursing; I am once again an Occupational Health Nurse at a rehabilitation organization.  Thank you TIRR!

What Rehabilitation Nursing Means to Me:             Working Hard to be the Best

Dana writes, “Well, as you can see from reading the above, my love of rehabilitation nursing came as a result of a personal experience.  Since TIRR is the only place I have worked as a rehabilitation nurse, I really don’t know if it is rehabilitation nursing or TIRR that I really love.  From the beginning recruitment process at TIRR to my co-workers on Brain Injury and of course the patients, I have felt accepted and appreciated.  The members of the team always understood if I had my back turned from them and didn’t respond to a question, it was because I didn’t hear them.  I learned by working at TIRR that people who work with the disabled instinctively bring out the best in others by accepting who and what they are.

The patients at TIRR have also taught me valuable lessons as well.  To see a person who has recently experienced a life changing catastrophic event and work hard to be the best they can be, well, there are no words to describe it.  It has given me a new perspective on life.  There have been times when I have been at a social event or at a party and hear people complain about pretty mundane things as though they were earth-shattering problems.  I would think about the patients back at the hospital and the road to rehabilitation that many of them are on and wish I could have that complainer at the party walk in my nurse’s shoes for a day with these amazing patients and show them how trivial their problems really are.  

And In Conclusion:

Dana writes, “Thank you for allowing me to share a bit of myself with you.  I feel I am in wonderful company whenever I am in the company of other nurses.  All of our lives are fascinating; there is something special about a person who is willing to involve themselves in other’s lives to help heal a broken body and/or mind. 

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