#MeetUsMonday - Meet Clinical Instructor Mary Howell
Meet Mary.
Salsa and hip-hop dancer, mom of three, and fluent Spanish speaker who once paddled in an ocean-to-ocean race in a cayuco boat through the entirety of the Panama Canal. A Virginia native who attended middle school in Colombia and graduated from high school in Panama, earned two degrees from UVA, and married former UVA Cavalier football player Jimmy Howell, with whom she owns and operates award-winning practice Mental Health Matters. A certified pediatric nurse, CNL and award-winning clinical instructor who recently fulfilled a lifelong dream of swimming with sharks.
HER NURSING BACKSTORY
“I went to international schools growing up where everyone was bilingual and got to make friends with people from all over the world. Those years really formed me as a person. It’s where I really began to develop my love for people from all backgrounds, all countries, all cultures. In Latin America, I did a lot of volunteer work in orphanages, which is where I discovered a love of children. It’s when I realized that, ‘OK, whatever I do, I want to be around children, to help and give back to them and protect them.’
“At first, I thought I’d do intelligence, because my stepdad worked for the CIA. But after doing an internship at Langley with the CIA in my third undergrad year, I realized I was too much of a people person and wanted to be boots on the ground helping people rather than spending time trying to go after bad people in the world.
“I’d been volunteering with Madison House in medical services while at UVA and realized that was the direction I wanted to take for a career. Jimmy (Howell, her husband) played a big role in my pursuit of nursing, too. We met as undergraduates: He was a psychology major, because, playing football, he had too many practices to complete a nursing major, but knew he wanted to do nursing in a non-traditional way. We really went into nursing together when we entered the direct-entry CNL program in 2015.
WHAT THE CNL PROGRAM WAS LIKE
“Intense, for sure. But, also, so inclusive. The diversity of people in the program, the life experiences they all bring, are just remarkable. I feel like that really contributed to our getting such a rich education because the playing field is level and you’re learning the essentials of nursing together. I loved all of my professors. You could tell how much they believed in the field of nursing and wanted to pave the way for the next generation.
“There are so many opportunities for growth that you get with the CNL that you don’t get when you do nursing on a more traditional path. For my community health rotation, for example, we got to go to the Bahamas and work on a project combatting obesity in pediatric populations. I did a capstone on wayfinding at UVA Children’s hospital to improve communication with non-English speaking patients on the 7th floor and worked to integrate iPads into care flows for better face-to-face interpretation.”
EARLY NURSING ROLES
“I started my nursing career at UVA Health’s 7th floor pediatric acute care unit, and, for two years, worked at the bedside on that floor. It gave me a great base of knowledge about pediatric nursing. I remember feeling, though, like I’d build relationships and then come in for my next shift and find the patient gone. I’d wonder what happened to them—part of the reason that I took a different job at Blue Ridge Care Connection for Children as a care coordinator and case manager.
“In that role, I built long-lasting relationships with medically complex children and their families, acting as their sort of ‘go-to’ person for anything they needed. I did that job for five years and had a caseload of between 60 to 80 patients. I loved working closely with people from different backgrounds, cultures, and languages; it gave me experience that I wanted to help incorporate into the bedside. Stepping into that complex care coordination role allowed me to look at the bigger picture, connect the dots of healthcare, and really help kids lead the best lives possible, regardless of their diagnoses.”
“That role also helped me see the whole person, the whole family, and to understand that, when we’re assigned a patient, we’re responsible for the tasks they need done—blood pressure, temperature, and medications—but also have an amazing opportunity to bring light to some dark situations. We help them find hope and understand that their diagnosis doesn’t have to define them, that they can live whole, beautiful lives.”
"When we’re assigned a patient, we’re responsible for the tasks they need done—blood pressure, temperature, and medications—but also have an amazing opportunity to bring light to some dark situations. We help them find hope and understand that their diagnosis doesn’t have to define them, that they can live whole, beautiful lives."
Clinical instructor Mary Howell
FACULTY WHO INSPIRE HER
“[Assistant professor] Amy Boitnott was one of the biggest influences in my career as a pediatric nurse. Seeing her compassion and love for people is palpable. She’s inclusive of people in the classroom, too, who speak up and sometimes have different opinions. She never shuns them, is open, and never speaks to anyone in a way that makes people feel like they shouldn’t speak up.
“That’s been very impactful in my career; I still carry that with me, every semester, and think of her frequently, both teaching and the work I do at the bedside. She’s also a storyteller, which influences me, especially when it comes to things that students have a hard time with. She shares with students real life stories, experiences she’s had at the bedside, and hearing her talk not only about a diagnosis but what it looks like in a real patent, in a child, and how nurses can go beyond filling orders and really make a difference in their lives: she inspires me.”
HER TEACHING STYLE
“This past semester, we had several babies on the pediatric floor that had neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), who were withdrawing from drugs after having in utero exposure to Methadone, cocaine, or whatever the mom was on. These babies are often screaming, suffer from rashes, are inconsolable. Students really struggle with that.
“I want to empower students to know the lasting impact they’ll have on these children . . . the positivity that they bring to things that are very scary and overwhelming to kids. I’m so proud of them when I see their confidence grow. A lot of times, the first two shifts they’re scared and timid, but, by the third shift, they’re passing a ball back and forth with a child, coloring a sign for a pediatric patient’s door with their name on it. It’s amazing."
Clinical instructor Mary Howell
“Sometimes, I see students’ feelings of animosity when they observe parents who’ve made what seem like not great life choices that impact their children. I try to give them perspective about what I’ve seen and remind them that the stories we see aren’t necessarily the full picture. Seeing the baby is heartbreaking, but the mother also went through something, or a lifetime of somethings, where she decided that drugs were the route she’d take. Maybe it was abuse, homelessness, stress, past trauma. We are all human; we all make mistakes. Meeting that parent or caregiver and giving them grace and knowing that, hard as it is to see suffering, we cannot hold it against them. They deserve our love and compassion, too.
“I’m also big on creating a safe space for pediatric patients. Sometimes students are hesitant or scared to interact with medically complex kids, but I always tell students, ‘Ask them about their stuffy,’ or, to ask the kids if they want to build a playdough snowman and listen to its heart before taking kids’ vital signs.
“I want to empower students to know the lasting impact they’ll have on these children . . . the positivity that they bring to things that are very scary and overwhelming to kids. I’m so proud of them when I see their confidence grow. A lot of times, the first two shifts they’re scared and timid, but, by the third shift, they’re passing a ball back and forth with a child, coloring a sign for a pediatric patient’s door with their name on it. It’s amazing to see that transition and how empowered they feel.
“For me, teaching has been the best of all worlds: to learn from my students and walk alongside them and hopefully be a friendly face and a safe space so they can learn, come to me for help. Nursing is such a fulfilling profession; we do so much more than completing orders and checking boxes. That’s definitely something I try to instill in my students; there’s always so much more to everyone’s story. We have to, we get to, look at the bigger picture.”
BEST PART OF HER JOB
“When students reach out to me after they’ve graduated to share something . . . ‘Mary, I had this patient today, and this happened, and you were the first person I thought of,’ well, I cry every time I get a message. That something I did or said impacted someone else is just so incredibly rewarding. Even on hard days, or when students don’t like how I do things, I feel like I’m making a positive difference. It’s incredible to see it come full circle.”
UVA SCHOOL OF NURSING IN A WORD?
“COMPASSIONATE. That’s part of the reason I wanted to be a member of the community and also teach for the School: it’s just exactly who I try to be. Compassionate in the sense that we look at the whole picture, the whole student, and work with them to find their passion, and make an environment safe for them to learn in, and thrive, but also to be a part of this community of employees at the School . . . when a big life event or something happens, there are messages, acknowledgements, warmth and kindness: you don’t get that everywhere. That makes it unique.
“I just turned 35 and got a birthday message from the dean. It’s a gesture to say, ‘We see you.’ That’s important and nice and helps us thrive.”
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