By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Few things are more rewarding for a parent than a child who chooses to follow in their career footsteps. A mother-daughter team at St. Elizabeth Healthcare are building their own legacy in nursing, doing work they love in a place they are devoted to.
Jennifer Fraiture hadn’t really thought of going into the nursing field. She already had a degree in political science and French, and her career choices seemed to center around those fields.
Then she had her daughter Olivia, and it wasn’t an easy birth. There were complications, and the baby went to the NICU for a bit.
“The nurses were so wonderful, so supportive, and so in command,” Jennifer recalled. “In the back of my mind was the thought that maybe someday I would like to do that.”
The thought receded as she went about her life, and she didn’t think about it until she had her second daughter. That birth also required some extra help.
“Again, I had wonderful nurses, and it kind of solidified my thoughts that I would like to try nursing,” she said. “I went back to school to get my Associates’ degree in nursing, because then I would be able to work in the field. I decided later to get my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in nursing.”
Jennifer said she realized that wherever she was in the country, nursing is universal, and the group of people who became nurses were a very special group of people.
She wanted to be in that special group.
In the meantime, her daughter Olivia Ziegler was growing up, and listening to the stories her mother told about being at work as a nurse.
“I started college in 2019, and I was majoring in Biology, but halfway through my freshman year I switched my major to nursing,” said Olivia, who is now 24. “There seemed to be more room to grow in that major, and I had heard a lot about nursing from my Mom.”
She said she graduated and then did a six-month orientation. She had shadowed on a few floors at St Elizabeth Hospital in Edgewood along with her mother, and she realized she would like to work in the ICU or the Intensive Care Unit.
“We see a variety of cases in ICU,” she said. “We can see respiratory failure, COPD, diabetes, stroke, sepsis, alcoholism —- these are just a sample of what we might see.”
Jennifer had chosen the transitional care floor, although she did like them all, for different reasons. Now she is in an administrative role as a Structural Heart Nurse Manager and System Stroke Program Coordinator.
“I work closely with doctors, nurse navigators, nurses, and medical assistants who help with several procedures to fix heart valves,” Jennifer said. “I don’t work directly with the patients, but I work closely with the doctors and the nurses as a team.”
Olivia said once she started down the path of becoming a nurse, she never looked back.
She said it felt totally natural. Jennifer also said she was thankful for going down the nursing path, and she has never doubted her decision either.
“I never tried to tell Olivia what field to get into,” said Jennifer. “She wanted to be in a medical field, but I knew from when she was little that she had to figure it out herself. But I was really super excited when she decided to be a nurse, and I was even more excited when she decided to work at St Elizabeth Edgewood with me.”
Olivia said neither of them tends to stop long enough for lunch together, but said her mom brings her coffee, and everyone in her department loves to see Jennifer when she stops
by.
“It’s kind of like a celebrity sighting,” she said, laughing.
Both said there are cases that stick in their memories. Olivia, who has daily contact with people in life and death situations, said those patients who get better against all odds remind her constantly of how resilient people and their families are. When the situation is really bad, she reminds herself that she needs to be calm.
“I tell myself, it’s not about you, it’s not about me, and I have to concentrate on taking care of the patient to the best of my ability,” she explained. “For some people it’s the worst day of their life. If it doesn’t work out, I go home and be with my animals, and listen to music and try to decompress so I can do it again the next day. I will say, the ghosts of alarms still go off in my head!”
Jennifer also said she always looks for the little tiny moments when she realizes she might have made a difference.
“It’s like when you know you have impacted someone in a really positive way,” she said. “That is a very rewarding feeling.”
Both mother and daughter absolutely love working at St Elizabeth.
“St Elizabeth does a good job of growing people, and recognizing talent,” said Jennifer. “I love my job and I plan on staying here because I feel that I am doing important work.”
Olivia agrees, saying she loves her job too, and her boss is brilliant.
“There is such a nice community feeling here in the hospital,” she said. “I feel very comfortable on my unit, and I see them as family. You don’t always get that. I see many of them outside of the hospital, too. It really makes a hard job easier when you love what you’re doing and you like the people you work with!”