When three-year-old Alia grins up at her and makes the sign for star, Linda Kim, LPN, is again reminded why she became a pediatric nurse. While she grew up looking out for her four younger siblings, she’s made a career out of caring for other people’s children and can’t imagine doing anything else.

“I’ve always loved to help,” said Kim of her chosen profession. “But it’s not always easy. As a nurse, you have to be willing to give something extra.” And that she has.

A Kid-Friendly Career

It’s been a long road to Castle Medical Center’s (CMC) pediatric home care division, which Kim currently calls home. She began her career at Community Hospital in Battle Creek, Mich., and then spent the next 16 years at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Hawaii. There, she taught parents how to use apnea monitoring equipment, which she also was responsible for maintaining.

Anxious to get back to the bedside, she called CMC’s home care division, and they welcomed her with open arms.

“They had a patient less than two blocks from my home who needed a nurse,” recalls Kim. “It was like it was meant to be.”

Today, Kim cares for medically fragile children, newborns to age three, many of whom cannot breathe normally due to severe brain damage or obstructed airways. She manages their tracheostomies, a hole cut in the trachea that enables them to breathe and allows for the suction of secretions. Alongside her fellow caregivers, she also provides respite to exhausted parents who can never leave their children unattended.

Signing and Singing

While Kim is devoted to all of her young charges, little Alia has taken up a special corner of her heart. Like many of her patients, Alia requires a tracheostomy to breathe and uses a respirator each night while she sleeps. But she doesn’t let these hurdles slow her down. She climbs trees and loves to swim, even though she can only go in waist deep.

Kim and her coworkers provide up to 70 hours of respite each week to Alia’s family, so her busy mom, whom Kim calls an “honorary nurse,” can get some much needed rest. Kim typically takes the night shift, while others come by during the day so Alia’s mom can run errands.

“The father got transferred to Hawaii from Utah, so they don’t have any family nearby for support,” explains Kim.

Although some of her daily tasks can get tedious, Kim revels in the perks that come along with the job. For instance, she and her fellow caregivers have learned to sign, so they can communicate with Alia. Kim wonders how many people know that “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” has five verses.

“Alia and I can sign the whole song,” reports Kim with a smile. “We ‘sing’ all the verses every time I visit. I call her my ‘Princess Twinkle, Twinkle.’”

“It’s so rewarding,” says Kim of her work with Alia and others. “Not only do I see my patients get better, I get to help scared parents become smiling and confident caregivers.”