Retiring nurse is a teacher, friend to patientsMay 22, 2010
By title, Barb Byer, the kidney transplant coordinator at the University of Rochester Medical Center, is an adult nurse practitioner.
In reality, she's also a teacher, and part of her job is to make the medical understandable, to let patients know in clear and unthreatening terms, what they need to know to live.
But Byer, who is 65 and about to retire after a 43˝-year career at the center, says she's learned much from her patients, many of whom have been returning for check-ups and other procedures for years.
"You learn how to make the best of a bad situation," says Byer, who lives in Fairport. "You learn how to be a survivor."
Byer was visiting with one of those survivors in the center's main cafeteria on Wednesday, as Terri Spiller, 51, of Chili, had stopped by.
Spiller's kidneys went bad when she was 17. She retained water, putting on 43 pounds, and was on dialysis for nine months before she received a kidney donated by her father.
The kidney lasted 16 years. A second, donated by her sister, lasted 10 years. A third, donated by a cousin, is working now.
Spiller says that in the beginning, and sometimes later when new hurdles arrived, she was defiant, reluctant to do what some of her caregivers advised.
"I was scared," she says. "But Barb helped me through that. She listens to patients. She doesn't force anything on them."
Byer says it's a matter of passing along the right information: "Patients need to know why they should do something. And they need to know you aren't going to abandon them."
Byer grew up in Irondequoit and went to high school at Nazareth Academy in the city. As she was about to graduate, she debated whether to become a nurse or a teacher.
It cost less to study nursing, so she enrolled in a three-year program at St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse. Upon graduation, she took a job at Strong Memorial Hospital.
Especially after she joined the transplant unit, she realized that she was also an educator, someone who explains things to patients.
"Nurses are teachers," she says. "That's what we do."
Through the years, Byer went back to school, picking up bachelor's and master's degrees, as well as her certification as a nurse practitioner.
She does what she can to pass along the life-saving message that kidney donations are needed, as people on the list for cadaver kidneys can expect to wait years before receiving a transplant.
Spiller was fortunate to receive living donor kidneys.
She has had other medical problems, but she was able to marry and have children.
"Terri has been a product of advances in kidney–disease treatment," says Byer, whose last day of work is this coming Friday.
"And I can't tell you what a blessing she's been in my life. I feel like I've made a difference."
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100522/NEWS0202/5220331/-1/COLUMNS/Retiring-nurse-is-a-teacher--friend-to-patients
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