Fifty-three years after beginning her nursing career at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Ann Faris is still leading, serving and learning.
The idea of retiring to play bridge doesn't appeal much to Faris. Instead, she returned to school two years ago and graduated in August with her Post-Master's Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
On August 13, Faris turned her tassel at the Academic Nursing graduation ceremony. In that moment, she became a "Double Deac," having previously earned her diploma in Nurse Anesthesia from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in 1976, followed by a master's degree in nursing informatics.
“I feel very strongly about being a lifelong learner — that just because you’re over 70, it’s not time to quit," Faris says. "I will always continue to learn and give back.”
Faris was drawn to nursing after graduating from high school in Wake County, North Carolina during the Vietnam War. She saw nursing as her way of giving back to the community and honoring her classmates who served in the military.
Her current role is a nursing clinical services specialist in clinical education, making clinical processes safer and more efficient for nurses. She works on patient safety, product and process improvements, and education, including teaching new nursing graduates how to recognize abnormal heart rhythms.
“I bring a longer perspective on where nursing has been, how it is evolving and where it is headed, and I still believe it is one of the best careers you can choose,” she says. “I help nurses understand that they have a long career ahead of them, so it is important to develop healthy habits, practice safely and provide the best possible care for their patients.”
She spent the early years of her nursing career in anesthesia and critical care at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, now Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. She later stepped away to raise her family and became active in her children’s schools and other community service efforts before returning to nursing about 20 years ago. She has worked in most patient care departments across the hospital.
She's also won numerous honors, including being named to The Great 100, Inc.’s "North Carolina Great 100 Nurses" list, a prestigious honor where 100 nurses across North Carolina are selected each year by their peers for nursing excellence. Faris is also a recipient of the "Nurse Excellence Award" from Atrium Health.
What's most rewarding to Faris is the relationships with people and helping patients through some of the toughest moments of their lives.
She remembers a patient who was on a life support system and was not expected to survive. Although the patient couldn't see her, Faris made sure to offer comfort by talking to the patient and telling stories. About a year later, Faris was speaking to the hospital's Patient Advisory Council, when the patient recognized the voice from her hospital stay.
“She remembered my voice and remembered that she felt safe when I cared for her," Ann says. "And so that became part of my practice as a critical care nurse. I always talked to my patients, no matter whether I thought they could hear me or not."
Faris has survived her own health challenges. Four years ago, she underwent open-heart surgery after working closely with her cardiologist to treat the condition before an emergency occurred. The experience showed Faris that she wasn't ready to quit.
“Since I lived through this, I thought, I'm not destined to go home, sit and play bridge,” she says.
“I said, ‘Ann, you need to just keep going.’”
That helped to motivate Faris to enroll in the DNP program, which she saw as an opportunity to become a more influential leader, and a natural continuation of her commitment to learning and service.
Through her duties at the hospital and medical school coursework, Faris uses evidence and experience to make nurses' work safer and more efficient, such as implementing the use of a new adapter that reduces steps needed for nurses to take blood draws from patients.
Her DNP project focused on reducing delirium in adult patients, and she emphasizes that everyday nursing interventions, like getting patients out of bed, encouraging meals in a chair, supporting sleep and providing natural light can reduce delirium risk.
With her new degree in hand, Faris plans to continue making improvements in the workplace. The DNP program helped her to be a stronger advocate for nurses in decisions affecting nursing workload, patient safety and more — anything to translate evidence into practice.
“The DNP has allowed me to speak up and speak my mind a little bit better because I’m looking at it from the evidence,” Faris says.
Her post-graduation celebration was modest, taking only a day off before returning to teach. Fifty years after earning her first School of Medicine credential, Faris says she still sees nursing as a profession with more to teach her and more ways for her to serve.
“I haven’t decided what I’m going to be when I grow up yet — and hopefully I will continue to not know, because I feel very strongly about being a lifelong learner,” Faris says.