Pat Ruffing, RN, Human Resources nurse at Houston Northwest Medical Center, has been named one of the 10 outstanding nurses to receive the Salute to Nurses Award from the Houston Chronicle. Winners were selected from approximately 1,700 nominations submitted by newspaper readers. Ruffing will be among those recognized at the ninth annual Salute to Nurses luncheon to be hosted by the Houston Chronicle on May 11 in honor of Nurses Week. She was nominated by her daughter, Jeni Ruffing, RN, who works as an operating room nurse at the hospital.
“My mother graduated from nursing school in 1964 and has not stopped nursing since,” says Jeni Ruffing. “It was because of her natural compassion and care of others that I wanted to follow in her footsteps and become a nurse. Since we work at the same hospital, I never get tired of hearing, ‘Oh, you’re Pat’s daughter . . . I just love your mom!’ I can only hope to strive to become such an inspiration to others.”
Over the course of her nursing career Pat Ruffing has worked in labor and delivery, as a school nurse, and in a family practice and emergency room. She took several years off to stay at home with her three children, but was always available to family and friends to provide care, comfort and medical advice. She now works as the occupational case manager at Houston Northwest Medical Center after spending 15 years in the hospital’s emergency department.
“From the first time I met Pat, I knew that any person in her care would be in good hands. Pat really cares about our team members as individuals and she shows it by giving each person the attention they deserve,” says Judy White House, human resources officer at Houston Northwest Medical Center. “She is empathetic to the pain that an injured worker might experience and works very hard to help them achieve a full recovery. Pat always goes the extra mile to make each person feel cared for.”
Pat Ruffing started volunteering as a nurse on emergency medical services (EMS) ambulances for Cypress Creek in the early 1970s. She also was instrumental in promoting community programs that are still in place today, such as having EMS crews on standby for high school football games and teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation classes.
Pat Ruffing’s recent fight against cancer inspired coworkers to form a team and raise money in her name to support cancer research through the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life effort. “You know by looking at her today that she is a cancer survivor,” says Jeni Ruffing. “But she doesn’t need or want anyone’s pity. Even during her own chemotherapy sessions she would use her experience and never-ending compassion to help other patients in the chemo suite by providing helpful tips about such things as where to buy a wig to combating medication side effects. If I had to describe my mother, I would have to say: splashy – never; remarkable – you better believe it.”