Newsroom Archive

Every year, a few of the 2,500 or so nurses who work at JPS Health Network decide they’re ready for a different challenge and opt to move on to a different place to work.

It’s not surprising to their colleagues that many of the nurses who leave come back, according to Elisabeth Rodgers, Director of Clinical Services. She said JPS can be a more demanding place to work than others. But that’s part of what makes it a great place for a career.

When Maria Avelar began cancer treatments at JPS Health Network in 2003, her prognosis looked good.

Her case of mediastinal lymphoma typically has better than a 90 percent likelihood of being cured without future complications. But her oncologist was alarmed when Maria became one of the rare patients who saw the disease come back – and quickly. Hers re-emerged in less than a year and Maria was in for the fight of her life.

Even before she retired last year from her job handling accounts receivable, Fort Worth resident Julie Jacobs was thinking about the days when she would spend her time attending to a task that’s a little more warm and fuzzy.

“I saw a report on TV about people who cuddle babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and I went to work trying to figure out how I could make that happen,” said Jacobs, who celebrated her first anniversary as a JPS Health Network volunteer April 12. “I was very determined that this was what I wanted to do.”

After 30 years as a physical therapist, Karen Cox was ready to focus on the part of her career she loved best – the hands-on taking care of people part– without the administrative duties and paperwork that came with a full time job.

The path to great things for a pair of ambitious, young volunteers leads through the JPS Health Network.

A $90,000 grant from the Junior League of Fort Worth will help team members in the JPS Health Network care for some of its most fragile patients.

The money will be used to buy Prolacta, a human milk-based product used to feed newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit that weigh less than 1,000 grams, the equivalent of about 2 lbs., 3 oz. Raquel Anderson, manager of the NICU, said the nutritional fortifier helps babies develop their brain more quickly without the irritability to their digestive system that often comes from bovine milk products.

Growing up in Mexico, JPS Health Network RN Tania Ayala saw her family members suffer unnecessarily because they didn’t have quality healthcare options available to them.

She was inspired when she moved to Fort Worth at 13 years old and saw the care members of her family were suddenly able to receive, ranging from routine check-ups to women’s healthcare and diabetes treatment. Ayala decided she wanted to help make a difference in her adopted community, so she went to nursing school.

In 1965, when Fort Worth area cardiologist Dr. Robert Capper made rounds at JPS Health Network to check on his patients, he brought his 10-year-old son, David, along for the ride.

“There were seven siblings, so I think dad brought me along to give mom a break more than anything else,” said the younger Capper. “But I watched the way he took care of people and gave his time to the community. That really inspired me.”

While doctors learn in medical school how to repair broken bodies, often times they don’t learn everything they need to know about the importance of compassion for patients and their families.

That’s unfortunate because many doctors will tell you that delivering bad news to a patient or the patient’s loved ones is by far the toughest part of their job, said JPS Health Network Medical Director of Trauma Services Dr. Rajesh Gandhi.

The word cancer strikes so much fear into people that often their initial reaction after a diagnosis is to concede defeat.