Page 3 - Outer Cape Health Services - IMPACT - Fall 2017

King enjoys the ability to juggle
RN Jean King Finds a Sense of Place
& Community
Registered Nurse Jean King has
done and seen it all when it comes nursing career come into play
to nursing. For more than 25 years,
she has navigated a gauntlet of
varying healthcare environments,
including taking time out to care
for her own sick family members.
At Outer Cape Health’s Wellfleet
health center, she gets to apply
all those professional and life
experiences under one roof for a
community she has come to love
and call her own.
A native of New York, King has
worked as a school and public
health nurse, made rounds for a
visiting nurse association and as
a private duty hospice nurse, and
spent years as a young ICU nurse
for heart transplant patients in
a busy, high-pressured medical
surgical unit.
Jean King, RN at the
Wellfleet Health Center
Different facets of her storied
every day. “One minute I can
be giving a baby vaccines, and
the next minute I might be
administering wound care to a
90 year-old,” shares King. “As a
community health center, we’re
taking care of people of all ages
and walks of life.”
For King, it is both her patients
and her committed health center
colleagues that get her going
in the morning. “You have a
team behind you here at OCHS
while also having a great deal of
independence to render expert
care. Every day is something
different, and knowing that I am
making a difference, that’s what
gets me up. I love the variety and
camaraderie.”
multiple cases as a team nurse
for Dr. Barbara Prazak and Dr.
Todd Spencer. The three share an
office meant for one. While the
quarters are tight, the environment
facilitates closer communication
and collaboration.
“As a community
health center, we’re
taking care of
people of all ages
and walks of life.”
“With Dr. Prazak and Dr. Spencer,
and our combined approach,
we are able to help people get
through many health crises in their
lives. I’ve raised three children of
my own, so I understand when
patients or family members are
feeling anxious. My job is to get
them the care they need while
educating them along the way. If
you can help patients to be better
educated on their health and
options, they seem to manage it
better.”
“Through the team model of care
practiced here, I get to see the
same people over and over again,
and that continuity of care helps
us to provide more consistent and
informed care. We get to know the
person for who they are on a first-
name basis.”
King makes sure no one will
forget her, even wearing brightly
colored smocks that she says
help her patients to be more alert
and engaged. “My colleagues
and I all share the same level of
commitment to the community.
It’s why we’re all here.”
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