By Deborah Fox
LOS LUNAS — There must be a special place reserved in heaven for nurses because it takes tremendous compassion and selflessness to do the job, especially in critical care units.
Nurse Windra M. Stringham can certainly count on a place beyond the pearly gates because as one family member of a patient she cared for said, Nurse Stringham is a gem and an angel.
A Los Lunas resident, Stringham was recognized for Excellence in Critical Care Nursing at the 2015 New Mexico Nursing Excellence Awards on Nov. 7.
“It is such an honor to have people look at what you do every day and think so highly of it,” Stringham said. “It’s very gratifying. That night I was walking on Cloud 9 and I still am. It makes you want to be more.
“It’s the icing on the cake for what I do because if I would have never gotten it, I would still feel as proud as I feel now of being a nurse,” Stringham continued.
It was her boss, Susan Mullin, who nominated her for the prestigious award.
“Dedicated, hardworking, compassionate, caring, sensitive, professional and knowledgeable are only a few characteristics of this remarkable nurse,” Mullin said. “Windra Stringham is so much more.”
Stringham was also chosen for a 2015 DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses ― to honor the super-human work nurses do for patients and families every day.
In the ambiance of an upstairs lobby at Lovelace Medical Center in downtown Albuquerque, the smiling brunette is right at home. She has been a critical care nurse for nine years and knows her way around the hospital like her own home.
“You feel like you’re making a difference and you know you can be that person to try to make that difference,” she said, her brown eyes brimming with emotion. “It gives me massive purpose in my life. I’m proud of what I do ― I’m very proud of what I do.”
According to the press release, Stringham has been involved in developing a number of patient policies and protocols in the areas of spontaneous awakening, preventing infection and sepsis, preventing diabetic ketoacidosis, and other accomplishments.
She has been praised numerous times by patients and their families for delivering outstanding care, and is currently sharing her years of experience in critical care as a clinical educator at the Lovelace Medical Center.
She will also attend instructor training for ELNEC-End of Life Nursing Education Consortium.
“When they’re up there in critical care, they can go either way; they can get better really fast or they can get sick and gravely ill very fast,” Stringham said.
In critical care, the nurses have to spend more time with the patient and keep a close eye for every little sign that might indicate a body function in trouble and then address it promptly.
“It’s hard to lose someone, but being there for them and their families is amazing,” she says, her voice faltering. “To hold the hand of a family member when they’re losing somebody or when they don’t have anybody, sitting next to them and holding their hand as they pass ― it’s an honor to be in that situation with them.”
Inevitably nurses come to care deeply for their patients and their whole family because it is such a critical time in their lives.
“You’ll be with a patient for 12 hours sometimes ― they’re that sick, but the families and the patients let you into their lives so intimately,” Stringham said.
Sometimes it’s just listening to a family member who is angry at a loss.
“You really are taking care of everybody and I like that, too,” she said. “I like being a part of that and trying to be the fixer. I really like being a fixer if I can.”
One family wrote the hospital saying, “Windra is a very caring nurse ― she took care of our loved one as if caring for her own family member.”
Born in Roswell, Stringham’s family moved to Los Lunas when she was 3 years old. She is a graduate of Los Lunas High School and attended the University of New Mexico-Valencia Campus.
In high school, she wanted to become a nurse. Her father, Antonio Trujillo, was a nurse and her grandmother, Laverne Hitchcock, was also a nurse, plus her grandfather Maurice Hitchcock, was a doctor.
Stringham started college part-time, waited tables and tended bar, joking that she was on the 10-year associate degree plan. But when her younger brother, Chris, was involved a fatal car crash, she was galvanized into earning her nursing degree.
“I realized life is a little too short to just float,” Stringham said. “I needed to do what I wanted to do.
“I was feeling like I needed to make a difference,” she continued. “I was like, ‘I’m going back ― it doesn’t matter how I get it done, I’m going to get it done because that’s what I want to do and that’s what I want to be.’”
As a graduate at 32 years old, she says not to let the day-to-day demands of life stop you from pursuing your dreams or goals and that it’s never too late.
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