Nurses Week Spotlight: Michelle Lowe

May 6-12 is National Nurses' Week. As part of the celebration, we will be honoring our own nursing staff here at HoG. We begin the week with Michelle Lowe. She recently accepted the role of Senior Director of Clinical Services, where she leads the nursing and social work teams. Michelle has been a part of our outreach team for more than 14 years, and she has done an exceptional job throughout her career here. She is loved by staff and clients alike. Here's her story.

Q: What is your role at HoG?
A:  I oversee the clinical staff on an administrative level.

Q: Why or how did you get into nursing?  
A: When I graduated from high school, I began going to college but was not sure what I wanted to do and tried a couple of different things.  I even practiced real estate at one point.  Then, my mother went through some major health problems due to SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus).  Watching her go through this and seeing the care she received made it clear to me what I wanted to do, to be a nurse and help others.  I went back to college with a clear goal and never looked back.

Q: How long have you been a nurse? Did you work somewhere as a nurse before joining HoG?
A:  I have been a nurse for 24 years.  Before working at HoG, I worked with pediatric patients at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.  I have been at HoG for over 14 years.

Q: What do you enjoy most and/or what are you most proud of in your role at HoG? 
A:  I enjoy working with people with bleeding disorders.  In the hospital, I would care for patients until they were well.  Then they would go home, and I would seldom see them again or know how they were doing.  I like being able to build lifelong relationships with our clients and to continually work to increase their knowledge in bleeding disorders.  With many medical professionals knowing very little about bleeding disorders, it is very important for our clients to be knowledgeable and advocate for themselves.

Q: What do you think is the most important contribution of nurses to the inherited bleeding disorders community or beyond the inherited bleeding disorders community? 
A: This is a very small and unique population.  Many medical professionals care for very few people with bleeding disorders.  It is important that people with bleeding disorders have care from nurses and other medical professionals that are experts and who specialize in bleeding disorder care.  The most important contribution of nurses to this community is providing on-going education in order to promote independence in caring for themselves at home and to become advocates for themselves.

Q: Do you hav a favorite client story to share:
A: When I started working at HoG, I met a family with a newly diagnosed child with hemophilia. The child was under a year old. The family was eager to learn. I spent much time with the family training both parents how to provide factor infusions independently. This was the first family I had trained after I started working at HoG. Watching the family progress, become more confident and ultimately become independent in infusion their child was very rewarding.