ABC 7 News On Your Side: National Nurses Week: Va. nurses at VHC Health 'making a difference' in patient's lives

ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — As 7News celebrates the third day of Nurses Week, we salute the men and women of VHC Health in Northern Virginia. The community hospital in Arlington is a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network and is a designated Magnet hospital, one of the highest group honors for a hospital. 7News and Safeway are providing breakfast, flowers and balloons for the nurses Wednesday morning as a small token of our appreciation for their hard work every day.

Labor and delivery nurse Ashley Meisenheimer started at VHC Health in October 2019. A few months later, the hospital and the country were in the midst of a pandemic.

Despite the stress, she says she wouldn’t change her career path.

“I chose nursing because I want to feel like I was making a difference in someone’s life and really get to connect with patients. Being a bedside nurse, I spend a lot of time with these patients. With labor and delivery specifically, I see these women at one of the most vulnerable parts in their life, so having them trust me to help guide them through it is just really special and it just means a lot,” Meisenheimer told 7News Health Reporter Victoria Sanchez.

She appreciates the community support during Nurses Week and says it doesn’t need to be a special time of year for her colleagues to care for their fellow nurses.

“We always help support each other and if I have a patient that needs an epidural right now, but I also have a patient that needs something else, I’ve had nurses offer to help me with one or the other. Just any random day of the year we are just so willing to help each other out,” she said.