HealthLinks Upstate July/August 2020

48 | www.UpstatePhysiciansSC.com | www.HealthLinksUpstate.com ANN STEVENSON COOPER, RN Ann Stevenson Cooper was always fascinated with her father’s stories about his experiences as a doctor. He was a general surgeon in Greenwood. Cooper was a pre-med major at Clemson Univer- sity at first but moved onto bio-engineering and ul - timately graduated with a civil engineering degree because, “designing roads and working with dirt and water seemed more interesting to me at the time,” she said. Before starting and raising a family, she worked for the South Carolina Department of Transportation for five years and ended up obtaining a mas - ter’s in transportation engineering. After 11 years of being a stay-at-home mom, she followed her call to be a nurse. She began her career as a nurse on the heart floor at Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital and worked there for nine years. She then moved over to OB and has been there ever since. “I have been so fortunate that I am still able to do a shift a month on the heart floor, too. I have also worked as needed at Baptist Easley in critical care for the last seven years. I can honestly say that I landed in my specialties by chance and timing and trusting God's plan for my life, but I am so thankful for the variety and the opportunities that I have had in my nursing career and particularly the work families I have acquired through the journey,” she said. KELLEY CALVERT, RN Kelley Calvert’s first career was in biology. After she graduated from Lander University in 1994, she spent 13 years at the Greenwood Genetic Center as a cytotechnologist in the chromosome and fish lab. The last four of those 13 years she was at- tending nursing school as well at Lander Uni - versity. She graduated with her BSN in 2007. She worked in ICU for her first three years as a nurse. “I gained so much knowledge about different disease processes. It was then that I transferred to home health,” she explained. She said she enjoys the different relationships she has with her pa- tients in home health. “I have been in home health for the past 10 years. It is my true love. It is almost as if I am another family member to them,” she said. Her advice to new nurses: “Always treat your patients as if they were your grandparents. Always show them compassion and love and be an advocate for them.” CYNTHIA BRYANT, MSN, RN-BC Ever since Cynthia Bryant was a little girl, she knew she wanted to be a nurse. And that is exactly what she set out to do when she started college for nursing in 1991. “After three years of completing core classes and pre-requisites, I was disappointed by having to be placed on a waiting list for up to two years to get into the program,” she lamented. During that waiting period, she got a job as a benefits specialist, got married and had two children. “My dreams of becoming a nurse fell to the wayside,” she said. But in 2002, she began taking classes at night to finish her nursing degree and, in 2004, she was accepted into the program. She began full-time nursing school, all while handling multiple part-time jobs and raising two children. She graduated in 2006 and began her ca- reer as a nurse in the post cardiovascular unit at Spartanburg Region - al Medical Center and has remained a cardiac nurse her entire career. In 2017, Cynthia was honored with the Daisy Award for Extraordi - nary Nurses by Spartanburg Regional Medical Center. “This has truly been the highlight of my career thus far,” she said. In 2019, she began teaching nursing students part-time for USC-U. “It is important to be a part of preparing great nurses for our fu- ture,” she commented. She concluded: “Never give up on your dream! No one said it would be easy; they said it would be worth it.” LESLIE TAYLOR, RN, BSN, COS-C Leslie Taylor realized that nursing was the career for her while working in the laboratory at Greenwood Genetics Center. “I became very interested in how genetics play a role in the disease process and clinically how to treat patients to provide them with a better quality of life,” she said. She attended Lander University for nursing school. She said she re - members enjoying her community health clinical the most and that was how she became interested in home health. “It was my favorite clinical. I was able to witness how nurses and thera- pists caring for a patient in their home could greatly improve their health and keep them from multiple hospitalizations,” she said. She added that she believes in the power of home health and how it can help a patient do better with treatments. “Home health is my passion because it helps patients stay in their homes and improves their quality of life. I am proud to be part of Health Related Home Care. ” Her advice to aspiring nurses is simple: “Study hard, listen to your instructors and don't quit!” T H E P U L S E O N UPSTATE NURSES HealthLinks Upstate has partnered with Health Related Home Care to highlight some of the Upstate’s top nurses.