致力于护理和感染预防

Before Tom Button ’79 could make an impact in his chosen field of nursing, he had to first break down a few barriers.

当汤姆在20世纪70年代末来到芒特仁慈医院时，研究表明男性在护理人员中所占的比例不到5%。 In fact, Tom was one of only two men out of more than 40 graduates in Mount Mercy’s Department of 护理 class of 1979. 但在考虑了其他职业选择，并在海军短暂服役后，他来到国会山，专注于走自己的路。

“I knew nursing was for me,” Tom recalled. “I knew that was the right thing. I didn’t know where it was going to take me, but that was the goal.”

It ended up leading him to an accomplished career not only in nursing, but as a health care leader in the field of infection prevention, making him a well-deserved recipient of Mount Mercy’s 2024 Distinguished Service alumni award. 然而，最初，汤姆承认，作为一名男性，在女性主导的护理领域，对那些对谁应该成为一名护士持过时观点的人提出了一些挑战。

“No matter who you are, you’re going to run into obstacles,” he said. “你必须坚持下去，保持积极的态度，知道目标在哪里，知道你真正想要完成什么。 That’s how I looked at it.”

Tom感谢Mount Mercy在他完成项目并开始职业生涯的过程中给予他的支持，特别提到护理学院首任院长、前教授Mary Tarbox博士是他宝贵的导师。 As a non-traditional student, he didn’t live on campus and was slightly removed from campus life, although he did participate in drama and choir.

在获得护理学学士学位后，他在不同的地方，包括迈阿密、达拉斯、亚特兰大和堪萨斯城，从儿科护理到成人护理来回切换。 他最初被推入儿科，因为当时男性无法成为分娩护士，尽管他渴望成为一名助产士（在Mount Mercy医院的一位产科讲师的鼓励下）。 这是一个暂时的挫折，但他在Mount Mercy获得的儿科知识帮助他奠定了后来的职业道路。

2003年，在德克萨斯州的麦金尼，他做出了改变职业生涯的决定，接受了一个护理专业的职位，担任感染预防与控制主任，他的职责包括确保他的医疗保健系统符合政府的感染预防标准。 他接受了几个类似的职位，包括2012年在堪萨斯城杜鲁门医疗中心担任感染预防和控制公司董事，这使他回到了中西部。

“An infection preventionist basically is involved in everything in health care,” Tom said. “From facilities, looking at water and air quality to how construction will affect our patients and staff and develop ways to protect the environment and protect people? What do we do on the nursing units to make sure people are giving injections correctly and using safe injection practices? 我们如何通过中央静脉导管，呼吸机相关肺炎或Foley导管相关尿路感染来预防血液传播感染？ 我们着眼于抗生素的使用，以帮助防止通过不适当使用抗生素而进一步发展多重耐药生物体。 The profession looks at every aspect of the health care organization that could ultimately provide a means for infection to be obtained or spread to others.”

Tom’s developed expertise was called upon during two highly publicized outbreaks that threatened public health. 2014年10月，他回应了世界卫生组织（World Health Organization）的帮助请求，在西非塞拉利昂担任了一个月的顾问，帮助一家医院控制埃博拉疫情。

“They had a lot of health care workers who had died from Ebola,” Tom explained.

“We worked on how the staff were going to put their PPE on and how they were going to take it off,” he continued. “We’re going to keep themselves and the environment clean so that they didn’t have to worry about getting any more infections. And the good thing is, after we did all of this, there were no other health care workers in that organization, in that hospital setting, that developed Ebola.”

在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间，他再次获得了这些知识，当时他重新退休，协助在加利福尼亚州、德克萨斯州和佛罗里达州的医院实施感染预防措施，每次对员工进行一两个星期的教育，尽管他自己的人身安全受到威胁。

“I knew that I understood good infection prevention practices — that I could protect myself,” he said. “What I wanted to do was share that knowledge so other people could also protect themselves.”

汤姆现在和他的丈夫诺伯托住在堪萨斯城，虽然他不再全职工作，但他仍然被要求做感染预防方面的咨询工作。 Looking back upon his career of accomplishments, he’s grateful to Mount Mercy for laying the foundation for an impactful career.

“I think that anybody that goes into nursing always has the desire to help,” Tom said. “我认为仁慈山培育了它，让它成长。”

Tom encourages today’s students to soak in the entire college experience—not just the academic requirements. He’s pleased to have opportunities to pass along what he’s learned to future health care leaders.

“I feel like I’ve had my opportunity to shine and now it’s payback time,” he said. “So it’s really being able to train other people so that they can pursue their passions the same as myself.”

至于当初选择护士作为职业，他现在回想起来并不后悔。

“I 100% chose the right profession,” Tom said. “There are so many so many opportunities, I talk to people about nursing all the time.”