Page 36 - BusinessWest July 7, 2025

Rivera >>Continued from page 32
ra recalled that, while she had the vision and drive to
be a nurse — with some inspiration from her great
grandmother, who served a tech in a maternity unit
— she wasn’t at all sure if such a career was within
reach, financially and otherwise. But she worked
hard, earned scholarships that essentially left her
debt-free after graduating, and was able to enroll at
Westfield State.
She credits her professors at the school with help-
ing her not only with the rugged course material, but
also with overcoming doubts that she fit in and could
make it in this field.
“I had such amazing people in my life to get me
here — especially the people in the Westfield pro-
gram; I don’t know if I would have made it this far
without them,” she said. “The small nursing classes
there allowed me to build close connections with pro-
fessors who encouraged me and helped me grow.”
Rivera completed rotations at Baystate Noble Hos-
pital, the Holyoke Senior Center, Mercy Medical Cen-
ter, Baystate Pediatrics, Springfield Public Schools,
Hampden County House of Corrections, and Holyoke
Medical Center, where, coincidentally, she worked
on the M5 Adult Behavioral Health Unit with charge
nurse Kim Larrier (see related story on page 32).
Larrier >>Continued from page 32
“I’m trying to write on a piece of paper, ‘please stop
doing that,’” Larrier recalled. “He’s yelling at me, and
he’s got blood all over the glass ... he’s pointing the
glass at me and saying, ‘I’m a grown man, and I don’t
need to be here; let me out of here.’
“That was very scary,” she went on, adding that
the situation was resolved with the help of 11 staff
members.
Meanwhile, she has treated patients who would
later be charged with murder, but were just another
patient when they arrived.
But these moments have been far outweighed by
those opportunities to see patients get better — and to
play a significant role in helping them get better.
HMC has 54 inpatient psychiatric beds across
three units, one for seniors and two for younger indi-
viduals, noted Larrier, adding that M5 has 20 beds for
those ages 16 and up. Individuals assigned to these
beds arrive with issues and conditions ranging from
homelessness to substance abuse problems; suicidal
tendencies to unmanageable anxiety and depression.
And, due to a statewide shortage of beds, patients
come from across the Commonwealth.
Lombardi >>Continued from page 34
help answer questions they might have. We’re their
support person, and we’re always available for them.
“I like that I can not only help the nurses, but have
interaction with the patients, make sure they’re hav-
ing a good experience, and do anything I can to make
their stay better,” she went on. “I like teaching — that’s
why I got my degree in that as well — and I like hav-
ing the opportunity to teach nurses to be the best they
can be, give them confidence, and show them what
they can achieve in their career.”
What those coming out of nursing school need
most is support, she added, and she’s committed to
providing it, in whatever form it takes.
“They need to know that they’re not alone, that
they can always ask for help — I think that’s very
36
JULY 7, 2025
“Nursing isn’t just a job for me ... it’s a calling,”
she explained. “As a bilingual, first-generation nurse,
I want others from backgrounds like mine to know
they belong in healthcare and can succeed. My jour-
ney wasn’t easy or typical, but it shaped me into a
nurse.” BW
She said she chose CDH to start her career for
several reasons, especially because it offers an oppor-
tunity to serve her community and also “be a bridge
for patients who might feel unseen or forgotten.”
As noted, she is expected to start early next
month, and is currently taking part in the hospital’s
nurse residency program, where recent graduates
are paired with a preceptor, but also other recent
graduates.
“They’re going through that transition with you,”
she said of the jump from school to the workplace,
DesLauriers >>Continued from page 35
adding that it’s good to have the opportunity to work
must be ready to respond, he said, adding that this
beside people who are also getting started in the field.
response includes treatment of those who might be
And while she’s looking forward to the med-surg
injured, physically or mentally, with a focus on the
unit — “it’s an amazing place to start, especially as
long term. He wants to be part of that and bring that
a new grad, because you get many different kinds of
perspective he gained from being on the front lines.
cases” — her goal is to work in the intensive care unit.
“It’s not just a short-term element; it’s a long-term
“As nurses, one of our main goals is to help people
commitment to making sure that the health of the
cope,” she explained. “But especially in an ICU, you
population is committed to,” he said. “And that goes
have to learn how to critically think. I’d love to experi-
along with the long-term commitment to rebuilding
ence the challenge on that floor.”
and stabilizing after a disaster.”
While she’s just getting started in her career as a
It remains to be seen what the next chapter in
nurse, Rivera hopes her story can serve as an inspira-
DeLauriers’ journey will be, but his story clearly shows
tion and that she can be a role model of sorts to oth-
that nursing can be a second, or third, career, and it can
ers facing the many types of challenges she did.
inspire the pursuit of other opportunities as well. BW
The average length of stay is seven to 10 days, she
went on, adding that most patients arrive first at the
emergency room, where they are evaluated by the cri-
sis team.
Those who are assigned to these floors work with
a psychiatrist and a social worker, while group thera-
py focuses on coping skills, how to manage feelings,
manage a panic attack or anxiety, and more.
But nurses play a critical role in these broader col-
laborative efforts; in addition to administering medi-
cation, they conduct mental health assessments each
shift where they grade depression and anxiety.
“The mind can be tricky ... it can trick people into
feeling that it’s not worth living. When they’re so
focused on killing themselves, their mind will play a
trick on them and make them believe their kids would
be better off without them, their spouse would be bet-
ter off without them, or they’re not needed at work,
that they don’t fit in this world,” said Larrier, adding
that nurses play a lead role in collaborative efforts to
help patients fight through such feelings.
Many of these patients return to the unit several
times, she went on, noting that she and the other
members of the team build a rapport with them and,
more importantly, earn their trust.
“Many times, we’re asked to come down to the
emergency room to help with a difficult patient that
we know,” she told BusinessWest. “They may not take
a medication from a nurse in the ER that they don’t
know; however, if they call me and want me to talk
with her, we’re more than happy to work with them.”
As she noted earlier, many of those who come to
this unit do get better and go on to lead productive
lives, and such success stories are among the many
rewards from working in this realm. She cited the
case of a woman who had become so depressed, she
became catatonic.
“That means she sits, she stares, she doesn’t eat,
she doesn’t talk,” she said, adding that, through shock
treatments and other interventions, she was pulled
out of this catatonic state.
That was one small victory among many for a
nurse who has always been intrigued by the mind and
decided long ago that this wouldn’t just be a fascina-
tion; it would become a career. BW
important,” she explained. “They need to know their
resources and understand that they’re not going to
know everything when they come out of school. A lot
of nursing is gaining experience on the job, so as long
as they know when to ask for help and whom to ask
for help, they’ll be all set.”
Lombardi quickly acknowledged that this ability to
ask for help is certainly an acquired skill, something
she helps young grads with as much as anything she
might teach at the bedside.
“Some don’t want to ask for help, and we discour-
age that,” she told BusinessWest. “We always encour-
age people to ask for help, and that’s one of the things
I always do; I always make sure, especially with the
new grads, to round on them multiple times a shift,
asking them if they need help, what I can do for them,
and picking their brains a little bit.”
Lombardi said the role of the nurse manager takes
on even more importance at a time when many vet-
eran nurses are retiring, others are moving on to less
stressful work — a byproduct, in many respects, of the
COVID years — and fewer people are getting into the
profession.
“A lot of people don’t want to work at the bedside
anymore — they want those remote jobs, office jobs,
or even the aesthetics industry, with Botox and all that
... many new nurses want to get into that field,” she
said. “So
it’s harder
to find
Lombardi
Continued on page 45 >>
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