Taylor Inspires Recent Nursing Graduates

Elizabeth Taylor, RN, former nurse educator on Tower 16, delivered the commencement speech for the Nursing program at Blue Hills Regional Technical School in Canton. Taylor, who was invited to speak by a professor in the school’s bachelor of Nursing program, addressed more than 40 graduates as the keynote speaker during the June 25 ceremony.

She spoke of the importance of the nurse’s role in providing compassionate care and building relationships with patients and families. Taylor shared stories of how the nurse-patient relationship is central to the work of nursing, often making the difference in difficult hospital stays. She told of taking time to wash a patient’s hair, despite an unpromising prognosis, because she did not want the patient’s children to see their mother in such disarray. Every Christmas, that patient, now healthy and at home with her two daughters, sends a note to thank BWH for the nursing care she received.

“The time you take to listen and act on the little things patients need to get well is what they will remember,” Taylor said.