My Purpose, Our Mission – Amanda Hopp
“Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals.”- LJ Isham
Dialysis nurse manager Amanda Hopp is a listener.
“These dialysis patients are in very vulnerable states. We’re their lifeline and we have to really be there for them to help them live,” says Amanda, an 18-year employee in the Greater Fond du Lac region of Wisconsin. “Patients come in for treatment three times a week and are here three to four and a half hours. You definitely have a time to get to know them when you're not doing all your other responsibilities, but when you have the downtime or even when you're putting them on the machine or taking them off, you can just have those candid conversations.”
Amanda was nominated for the My Purpose, Our Mission series by Sabrina Hoeft, a dialysis nurse, who was inspired by Amanda to go back to school to get her nursing degree. She says Amanda is an excellent educator who remains calm under pressure as she teaches new nurses how to handle various situations. But it’s Amanda’s listening heart that brings peace to distressing moments.
“I want to do the thing she does. I want to be a great listener,” says Sabrina. “For example, we had a patient who was worried about his access (port), and she took the time to get a chair, and she went out there and just sat there and listened to all of the concerns that the patient had. She takes those moments to sit and talk to people when they're scared.”
Sabrina recalls another time when a distraught patient asked for Amanda.
“I said, ‘well, let me just get the phone and we'll get a hold of her’ and so we found out which unit she was at, and she sat and talked to him. He was so thankful. He was crying on the phone. Just being able to talk to her calmed his fears. It makes me get teary-eyed just thinking about it.”
As the day begins, the dialysis nurses gather for a short reflection.
“After we get patients situated on their machines, our team does a reflection from a daily devotional called Jesus Listening. I know there are a few patients who hear us and sometimes they relate to the devotion. It’s neat for us here at our little unit,” says Sabrina. “It's short and, in the morning, we have time to go through it. Even during the day, if something has gone wrong, one of us will say, ‘can we just do a devotion’ and sometimes it just hits home like ‘oh that's exactly what we needed.’ There was a day where Amanda came in and said ‘have you guys done the reflection yet? Because I need the reflection today,’ and that’s pretty cool.”
The SSM Health Mission statement reads “Through our exceptional health care services, we reveal the healing presence of God.” The healing presence of God is present in dialysis clinics in Greater Fond du Lac. By carrying the SSM Health Mission through each of her actions both professionally and personally, Amanda’s impact on patients and nurses brings love and healing.
“I just really think the Mission helps you to have good goals and give that excellent care,” says Amanda. “And that's just the foundation of what's going to get you to how you need to be as a professional, as a nurse or a patient care tech or whatever role in healthcare you have. Just to give that excellent service for these patients that are vulnerable and need you at one of their scariest times.”
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