Remembering Our Heroes of the Noble Nursing Profession

This week, thoughts turn to the noble profession of nursing. Nurses and their partners in healing are often intricately connected, a lifeline to us, in times of distress, when the need for healing, caring and comforting is greatest. This week, May 6 to 12, is designated National Nursing Week, honoring the birthday of Florence Nightingale.  

Nursing is much more than a job. The true calling stems from an innate compassion to help the suffering and an inner passion for healing. That spark is seen even in aspiring young nursing students. Who has not witnessed the nurse’s call to duty at the hospital bedside of a loved one, in the operating room, or in an emergency room!

A professional healer who has made nursing her life’s work caught our attention when Hartford HealthCare at Home announced last December that Southington resident, Patricia Trotta, RN, MSN had received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Connecticut Coalition to Improve End of Life Care.

A graduate of Yale School of Nursing, Trotta began as an oncology clinical nurse specialist and continued in that field for more than 25 years at the V.A. Hospital in Newington, continuing at Hartford Hospital and the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Meriden, (now MidState Medical Center). In 2010. she  joined Hartford HealthCare at Home’s hospice team, serving in central and eastern Connecticut.

“We are so proud of the recognition Pat Trotta has received. The work she has done to advocate for hospice and palliative care in Connecticut has been a tremendous asset,” said Laurie G. St. John, RN, MSN, vice president of Hospice and Palliative Care, Hartford HealthCare at Home.

Trotta’s career has included working as program manager of the American Cancer Society’s New England Pain Relief Project in organizing pain education and advocacy initiatives throughout the region. She also was coordinator of the Connecticut Cancer Partnership and a founding co-chairwoman of the Partnership’s Palliative & Hospice Committee where she developed goals and objectives for the State of Connecticut’s Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan.

Trotta is a board member of the Connecticut Coalition to Improve End of Life where she has been instrumental in the coalition receiving two $30,000 grants from the Connecticut Cancer Partnership for projects of palliative and hospice care.  

The state called her into service when in 2013 Gov. (Daniel P.) Malloy appointed her to the Connecticut State Palliative Advisory Council which analyzes the current state of palliative care in Connecticut and advises the Department of Public Health on matters related to improving the quality of life for people with serious illnesses.

Trotta noted that Connecticut ranks 51st in the nation for length of stay on Medicare hospice care, (only 14 days compared to 23 days national level). That’s not enough time for a patient and family to receive the care that is available in palliative care that could help them experience a peaceful, comfortable and dignified death.

“People need to understand more about hospice and palliative care which is about relieving symptoms of patients with a life expectancy of months, not years,  where the focus is on quality of life or comfort care and the active management of pain and the psychological, social and spiritual issues often experienced during serious illness.” Trotta said. “We need to encourage conversation about personal end of life wishes. Too many do not discuss this with their families or physicians which results in multiple futile treatments. Most people prefer to die at home, but too many die in an ER or hospital.”

“None of us like to discuss end of life, but it is so important to make our wishes clear as the kind of care we prefer. Even our physicians have trouble talking to their patients about it. Over the past 30 years I have seen exciting growth and advances. Still, there are barriers to ensuring the high-quality palliative and hospice care that are available. I am encouraged in the certainty that Hartford HealthCare at Home will continue to provide leadership in this important care to Connecticut residents”.

Pat Trotta, who exemplifies the best in our nursing profession, also teaches a Barre Class at the YMCA in Southington on Monday mornings. 

As published in the Appleseed column in the Southington Citizen on Friday, May 13, 2016. Freelance writer Dick Fortunato welcomes reader comments at dick617@gmail.com or in the Comments section below.