VIDEO: Training a new generation of compassionate nurses
After surviving a serious childhood illness, nursing professor Jenny Allert knows — and teaches — the value of compassionate care.
Jenny Allert knows the power of compassionate nursing from the perspective of the patient and provider.
The assistant professor in Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Department of Nursing was born with a lymphatic and vascular malformation that required scores of surgeries. Many children born with the condition don’t live to adulthood, and those who survive can face serious medical complications for the rest of their lives.
Allert survived, thrived and pursued a 17-year nursing career.
Her experiences as a patient and nurse now drive Allert’s mission to raise up the next generation of nurses by teaching lessons that go far beyond clinical skills.
“My childhood voice said, ‘I want to be a nurse because I want all nurses to know what compassion is,'” Allert says. “I want all nurses to know what it’s like to be the patient in the bed getting routine care. That’s not just a routine procedure you’re doing. There’s a person behind that.”
