Stilling the Storm
As a nurse, Worthington Christian graduate provides calm in the center of medical chaos.
According to Caroline Mousa (WC ’19), chaos comes with the scenery when one is a registered nurse. The Westerville resident works in the medical and cardiac Intensive Care Unit at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital. Prior to that, she worked in the hospital’s Emergency Room.
“The ER is more like large-scale chaos. It feels like it is there everywhere you turn,” Mousa said. “The ICU is more small-scale chaos. You might have it inside one of the rooms you are working in or in a couple of rooms within your unit, but overall, it’s not as chaotic as the ER.”
However, it’s not the bedlam Hollywood likes to present in movies or on television. Mousa tries to avoid television programs like Chicago Med or Gray Anatomy because they don’t offer a realistic portrait of hospital life.
“Some shows do a better job of it than others,” she said, adding with a laugh. “If you were watching a TV show, you’d think a patient coding would be a typical (situation). It’s not an everyday occurrence. At least it shouldn’t be … if we’re doing our job correctly.”
Mousa has had to adjust her sleep schedule to be a nurse. She usually works a 12-hour night shift three days a week. After clocking in, she reads patients’ charts, talks with other nurses about the patients under her care, and makes notes of expiring medications or updates to their treatments.
“It’s a high-stress environment,” she said. “Usually, the people you meet have the worst day of their life. They’re in pain, they’re sick, and they’re in the hospital.
“I hope I can bring a little joy and peace to someone who is having probably one of the worst experiences of their life.”
One of Mousa’s spiritual gifts is a sense of compassion, which can be both a blessing and a detriment when she’s working.
“I think I’m an empathetic person,” she said. “I’ve had patients where I would walk into the room, and within 30 seconds of introducing myself, they said, ‘I can tell you’re a Christian.’ That took me back for a second because I said, ‘I’ve talked to you for 30 seconds. How did you know that?’
“Something I’ve had to learn to work through is to let stuff go if it bothers me. If you’re in the medical profession, you need to learn to leave work at work. and I do things like going to the gym, exercising, and running to release stress.”
Growing up, Mousa wasn’t sure if she wanted to go into the medical field or into education. Her parents, Johanna and Mark Mousa, and her parental grandparents are teachers, as are two of her aunts.
However, Leah Custer, one of her cousins, inspired her to enter the medical field.
“When she was going through nursing school, she’d tell us her stories,” Mousa said. “That inspired me to go into nursing.”
After graduating from Worthington Christian, Mousa pursued a nursing degree at Indiana Wesleyan University.
One of Mousa’s most rewarding experiences at IWU was partnering with the Livingstone School of Nursing and Midwifery in the southern providence of Zambia. IWU students worked with their peers in different clinics. The students set up health education meetings with people from different villages, teaching residents about dental hygiene and polio and malaria prevention.
Since the students were from a Christian university, it was also a faith-based trip. They helped missionaries put on vacation Bible school, creating skits and leading worship songs.
“It was different than I expected,” she said. “Some of the clinics were in more urban settings, not like the way you typically picture Africa. However, there were some that were out there in the bush.
“Often when people think of Africa, they believe it’s a third world country, but it has become more advanced through the past couple of decades.”
Mousa’s time at Indiana Wesleyan gave her the background knowledge she needed to become a nurse, but it was nothing like working a 12-hour shift in a major city.
“I can have all this textbook knowledge of diseases and treatments, but it’s much different when you use that knowledge in real life,” she said. “It’s more critical thinking versus book knowledge.”
The nurse credits her time at Worthington Christian for helping her develop that critical thinking base.
“Even in college, I definitely had a better understanding of my personal studying habits, compared to some of my other peers in college who went to public school or even other private schools,” Mousa said. “Worthington Christian definitely prepares you well to handle workloads and learning to study.”
Those who knew Mousa in high school might be surprised to learn how she has flourished in the high-pressure world of nursing. At Worthington Christian, Mousa was a self-described “introvert.”
According to Mousa, nurses must be able to communicate with a wide variety of people—patients, worried families, doctors, pharmacists, and X-ray technicians, to mention a few.
“You’re kind of like the middleman between patients and doctors,” Mousa said. “In nursing school, the idea of walking into a room and interacting with strangers was very daunting.
“I’ve gotten better at my interpersonal skills through nursing, and I feel more confident walking into a room and saying, ‘Hi, I’m your nurse. I’m here to help you.’
“I’ve had a couple of people I knew from high school come into the hospital. I think they have been taken back (by what I am doing now).”