By Barbara Pierce
Melissa Gotte, 55, is a nurse in the ICU at Rome Health Hospital. Rome Health Hospital began as a small hospital, serving 19 patients when it opened in 1884. It evolved into Rome Memorial Hospital. In 2021, Rome Memorial Hospital adopted Rome Health as its new name to more accurately reflect the scope of services provided as a health network. It has 129 beds and 80 beds in a skilled nursing facility.
We wondered what it was like to be an ICU nurse at Rome Health and spoke with Gotte.
Q: How did you become interested in a career as a nurse?
A: It evolved. I don’t want to use the word “calling;” my career just evolved. I was always taking care of others: as a big sister, I cared for the younger kids; I was a babysitter.
Then when I was living in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, I decided I wanted to go to college. I came back to New York and became a medical assistant. I worked for an OB-GYN for 10 years. I loved that job. The doctor encouraged me to become a nurse.
I got my two-year nursing degree from MVCC — that was normal in those days; that’s the degree most people got. My goal now is to get my degree as a registered nurse; Rome Health will help with this: I like Rome Health a lot.
Q: How did your nursing career begin?
A: I started at St. Luke’s Hospital. I began in an intermediate unit where we had four patients to one nurse. When that unit closed, I had to make a decision about where to work. I made the decision to work in the ICU, though I was nervous about working in intensive care when I started.
After 23 years at St. Luke’s, I retired. For 17 of those years, I worked in the ICU.
I started in the Rome Health ICU four or five months ago. When I started working there, I was just overwhelmed because they were all so friendly.
I’m so lucky to be working there in the ICU; I love it here! I’m so happy in my job. We’re like a family in the ICU. Rome Health is growing and I’m happy to see that. They treat employees like family.
(Note: Regarding Rome Health is growing: In November 2023, work began to construct a 30,000-square-foot, three-floor addition on the north side of the hospital, which will allow the hospital to replace its aging operating rooms and intensive care units.)
Q: What are the rewards?
A: When it’s good, it’s really good; when it’s bad, it’s really bad. There are highs and lows. What I especially like is that you’ve got coworkers; we help each other get through the bad parts. The ICU workers are like a family. I’d never work anywhere else.
Also, l like that every day is different. You never know what to expect each day.
Q: What are the bad parts?
A: It’s especially hard when we have a young person who is dying. Cancer is the worse. You do everything you can, but it’s still gut-wrenching. Sometimes heart breaking.
One thing that helps me get through is what I was told once by a nurse when I worked in the ER. A baby came in as her face had been bitten by a dog. I had to put an IV (intravenous line) in her; she was crying and so distressed. I’m thinking to myself: “I’m causing her pain. I can’t do this.” But a nurse told me “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do!” I did need to put in an IV so she could get antibiotics or she could get an infection. I was causing her pain, but it was necessary. It was what I had to do. Ultimately, she was fine.
I often remember what that nurse told me that day: You’ve got to do what you got to do. That’s hard, but you do it because you have to.
Q: What characteristics does it take to do the important job you do?
A: Of course, it takes compassion, caring about people, concern for them. It takes the ability to put yourself in their position, to feel what it’s like for them, to understand what they’re going through. And it takes intelligence.
Being strong is important. You have to be strong. You have to be able to face your fears and do what you’ve got to do for that person. Sometimes that’s rough.