致力于护理和感染预防

Before Tom Button ’79 could make an impact in his chosen field of nursing, 他必须先打破一些障碍.

当汤姆在20世纪70年代末来到仁慈山的时候, studies show men represented less than five percent of the nursing workforce. In fact, Tom was one of only two men out of more than 40 graduates in Mount Mercy’s Department of 护理 1979届毕业生. 但在考虑了其他职业选择之后, 并在海军短暂服役, 他来到国会山，专注于走自己的路.

“我知道我适合做护士，”汤姆回忆说. “我知道这样做是对的. I didn’t know where it was going to take me, but that was the goal.”

It ended up leading him to an accomplished career not only in nursing, but as a health care leader in the field of infection prevention, making him a well-deserved recipient of Mount Mercy’s 2024 Distinguished Service alumni award. 最初, 然而, Tom admits being a male in the female-dominated field of nursing presented a few challenges from individuals who had outdated perspectives about who should become a nurse.

“无论你是谁，你都会遇到障碍,他说. “你必须坚持不懈，保持积极的态度, 并且知道门柱在哪里, 以及你真正想要完成的. 我就是这么看的.”

Tom appreciates the support he received from Mount Mercy as he made his way through the program and began his career, specifically mentioning former professor of nursing inaugural dean Dr. 玛丽·塔博斯是一位宝贵的导师. 作为一个非传统的学生, he didn’t live on campus and was slightly removed from campus life, 虽然他参加了戏剧和合唱团.

毕业后获得护理学学士学位, he switched back and forth from pediatric to adult nursing in various locations, 包括迈阿密, 达拉斯, 亚特兰大, 和堪萨斯城. He was initially pushed into pediatrics due to the inability for men at that time to become labor and delivery nurses, despite his desire to become a midwife (with encouragement he had received from an OB instructor at Mount Mercy). 这只是暂时的挫折, but the pediatric knowledge he had gained while at Mount Mercy helped forge what became his career path.

那是在麦金尼, 德州, in 2003, that he made the career changing decision to accept a position in a specialized track of nursing as Director of Infection Prevention & 控制, where his duties involved making sure his health care system was in compliance with governmental infection prevention standards. He accepted several similar roles, including Corporate Director Infection Prevention & 控制 with Truman Medical Center in Kansas City in 2012, which brought him back to the Midwest.

“An infection preventionist basically is involved in everything in health care,” Tom said. “从设施, looking at water and air quality to how construction will affect our patients and staff and develop ways to protect the environment and protect people? What do we do on the nursing units to make sure people are giving injections correctly and using safe injection practices? How can we prevent giving somebody a blood-borne infection through a central line catheter, 呼吸机相关性肺炎, 或Foley导尿管相关尿路感染? We look at antibiotic usage to help prevent further development of multi-drug resistant organisms through the inappropriate use of antibiotics. The profession looks at every aspect of the health care organization that could ultimately provide a means for infection to be obtained or spread to others.”

Tom’s developed expertise was called upon during two highly publicized outbreaks that threatened public health. 2014年10月, he answered a request for help from the World Health Organization and spent one month as a consultant in Sierre Leone in West Africa helping a hospital contain an Ebola outbreak.

“They had a lot of health care workers who had died from Ebola,” Tom explained.

“We worked on how the staff were going to put their PPE on and how they were going to take it off,他接着说. “We’re going to keep themselves and the environment clean so that they didn’t have to worry about getting any more infections. 好的方面是, 在我们做完这些之后, there were no other health care workers in that organization, 在医院里, 感染了埃博拉病毒.”

That knowledge was solicited again during the COVID-19 pandemic when he was pulled out of retirement to assist with implementing infection prevention practices at hospitals in California, 德州, 和佛罗里达, 每次培训员工一两个星期, 尽管他的人身安全受到威胁.

“I knew that I understood good infection prevention practices — that I could protect myself,他说. “What I wanted to do was share that knowledge so other people could also protect themselves.”

汤姆现在和他的丈夫住在堪萨斯城, Noberto, 尽管他不再全职工作, he is still called upon to do consulting work in infection prevention. 回顾他的事业成就, he’s grateful to Mount Mercy for laying the foundation for an impactful career.

“I think that anybody that goes into nursing always has the desire to help,” Tom said. “我认为仁慈山培育了它，让它成长.”

Tom encourages today’s students to soak in the entire college experience—not just the academic requirements. He’s pleased to have opportunities to pass along what he’s learned to future health care leaders.

“I feel like I’ve had my opportunity to shine and now it’s payback time,他说. “So it’s really being able to train other people so that they can pursue their passions the same as myself.”

As for his choice of nursing for a career, he looks back without any regrets.

“我百分之百选对了职业，”汤姆说. “There are so many so many opportunities, I talk to people about nursing all the time.”