Happy Nurses Week to Nurses Across the Globe

By Meredith Foxx, MSN, MBA, APRN, NEA-BC, Executive Chief Nursing Officer.

Throughout the past 100 years, Cleveland Clinic has grown from one hospital in downtown Cleveland to a 6,500-bed health system that includes a 173-acre main campus near downtown Cleveland, 19 hospitals, more than 220 outpatient facilities, and locations in southeast Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Toronto, Canada; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and London, England.

Not only do patients come to Cleveland Clinic from every state in the U.S. and roughly 185 countries, but Cleveland Clinic caregivers also hail from locations across the world.

Within the Zielony Nursing Institute, Cleveland Clinic’s 29,000 nursing caregivers are a global family with diverse backgrounds, specialties, experiences and education. They work as One Cleveland Clinic and are united in their commitment to providing exceptionally safe and uniform care to patients – regardless of geography or location.

In celebration of national Nurses Week 2021 and Cleveland Clinic’s centennial, we honor our nurses for the expert, compassionate care they’ve been delivering to patients, families and communities since 1921.

Please enjoy these stories from Cleveland Clinic nurses who share why they chose the profession and what it means to them to be part of the global Cleveland Clinic family.

Savitre Hope Bachoo, BSN, RN, CEN
Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital Emergency Department

“Growing up in Canada, my mother would take us to the homeless shelters a few times a year to help prepare and serve food. From a very young age, I remember how great the feeling was to serve others in need,” says Savitre Hope Bachoo.

Years later, when Bachoo was in high school, her grandmother passed away. Bachoo had spent most days and nights caring for her grandmother before her death. ,That was when Bachoo decided to become a nurse. “I wanted to do something in life that was meaningful and would help others in their most vulnerable times, as I did with my grandmother. I also wanted to become a nurse because of the diversity you can have in this career.”

As a nurse, Bachoo has traveled overseas, worked in dental offices as a sedation nurse and even worked in a prison. She started working at Cleveland Clinic in 2015 at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s emergency department (ED). In 2017, she joined the ED team at Avon Hospital. Having worked at both Abu Dhabi and Avon, Bachoo has seen how Cleveland Clinic provides patient care in very different regions of the world. She says what makes her most proud is that the standard of nursing care is consistent.

“Cleveland Clinic maintains compassionate care across the world, and I can personally attest to that. I have nurse friends from the Philippines, Ireland, Somalia, Canada, Jordan, Lebanon and more who have traveled from their own home countries to work for Cleveland Clinic because of the well-known standard of care,” she adds.

Bachoo says a moment when she was most proud that she chose a career in nursing occurred when she was flying from Abu Dhabi to Canada. A fellow passenger was having trouble breathing and his lips were swollen. Bachoo quickly administered the proper dosage of medications and after a short time, the passenger’s symptoms had subsided, and his oxygen levels had returned to normal. She remained with him until the plane landed and he was taken to the local hospital.

As she reflects on nursing in the COVID-19 pandemic, Bachoo hopes nurses will take a moment to “pat themselves on the back.” Nurses everywhere have reminded the world how important their jobs have always been. She finds meaning in a quote from His Holiness Radhanath Swami: “No one should ever think that I am too small to make a difference in the world. The energy of even one good deed affects the entire planet beyond what we can perceive.”

Nicolas (Nico) Houghton, DNP, MBA, MSN, RN, ACNP-BC
Cleveland Clinic London Critical Care

“Cleveland Clinic nurses are compassionate, innovative and collaborative,” says Nico Houghton, who has worked as the director of critical care nursing and director of advanced practice nursing at Cleveland Clinic London for two years. “When I see Cleveland Clinic nurses working together, supporting each other, developing improved workflows or leading on a clinical pathway, it really fills me with pride. Nursing has such a powerful voice and role in the leadership of our organization, and I think we are a better organization because of it.”

Houghton also commends Cleveland Clinic nurses for their collective effort to work toward the same goals through the organization’s mission, vision and values. He spent several years as a flight nurse practitioner visiting many Cleveland Clinic hospitals and says it was a unique opportunity to witness how the organization’s patients first guiding principle aligned caregivers across diverse locations.

“Now, in my current role, I see Cleveland Clinic London developing our own unique culture that exemplifies that same principle that is found across our global family.”

Houghton became a nurse because he was looking for a career in healthcare that would give him purpose and offer him the ability to make an impact. After considering various paths, he determined nursing best aligned with those goals. “Deciding to become a nurse was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” he says.

Houghton says nurses are key to helping drive forward evidence-based practice and the translation of evidence into bedside care.

When reflecting on how nursing history has helped to shape the care nurses provide today, Houghton says, “I think the most obvious way is through nursing research and evidence-based practice. We learn what is effective and what to avoid through investigation and maintaining an inquisitive spirit. Much of the care I provide today has been shaped by those nurses before me who have done the same.”

Nimeh Omar Mahmoud, MSN, RN
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi Neurology Intensive Care Unit

“Nursing to me was truly a calling and it is career that I knew would allow me to pursue different specialties. I knew nursing would take me places, such as education, bedside, management and more. I wanted a profession that would reward me daily for the impact I would have on families and patients,” says Nimeh Omar Mahmoud,
an assistant nurse manager position on the neurology intensive care unit (ICU),

Mahmoud recalls a specific case in which she was caring for a COVID-19 patient who was intubated, paralyzed and sedated. She was worried the patient wasn’t going to pull through. Remarkably, Mahmoud’s team were able to wean him off the sedation, he began following commands and passed breathing tests.

“The amount of excitement I had when he squeezed my hand, gave me a thumbs up and passed his breathing trial brought tears to my eyes. He didn’t give up and neither did we. I was proud to be there to support him and cheer him on,” she says. The patient was later extubated, transferred to a general nursing floor and discharged.

As a Cleveland Clinic nurse for the five years, she believes that in putting patients first, providing excellent quality healthcare and providing the highest standards of nursing practice.

She was among Cleveland Clinic nurses from several U.S. locations who mobilized when Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi caregivers needed help. “We all worked as one team, and when our colleagues from the U.S. arrived, including both doctors and nurses, it was like light at the end of the tunnel.”

Mahmoud says her Abu Dhabi colleagues were happy to return the favor when Cleveland Clinic’s Ohio region hospitals needed help in January 2021. “We didn’t hesitate and happily offered our services. Upon our arrival we were greeted as one nursing family and were warmly welcomed and supported. Cleveland Clinic is not only one big organization providing the best quality of care, but also one family helping each other during difficult times, which speaks volumes.”

Happy Nurses Week

Happy Nurses Week to all nurses – near and far! Thank you for all that you do each and every day to improve the health and wellbeing of others. You are an inspiration and a symbol of hope for all.