Our People - SSM Health Care

The Adrenaline Junkie
“ER people are adrenaline junkies. What’s
going on now won’t be going on 30 minutes
from now. I thrive on organizing chaos.”
Kris Mims has been an emergency room
nurse for 40 years. And Mims can’t imagine
being anywhere else, although the years may
have tempered her a little.
“You start out thinking you’re going to save the world, and
then you realize that all you can do is the best you can,” she said.
“You can’t change the world, but you can make things better.”
Mims is director of the Emergency Department at
SSM St. Joseph Health Center, St. Charles, Mo. She’s also been
at DePaul, St. Mary’s (St. Louis), and a host of other EDs in St.
Louis and elsewhere.
She likens her ED memories to a scrapbook filled with pictures
of people she can see just as clearly as if they were standing in front
of her. She remembers a lot of the sad things. The worst: Child abuse.
But there was the time the trucker drove himself to the ED
with severe chest pain.
He coded, received great care and a month later, showed up in
the ED to say thank you to the staff for saving his life. She tears
up at the memory.
Mims’ mother, who was a nurse, inspired her to become one.
“I grew up listening to her stories,” she recalled. As a young
nurse, Mims wanted to go to Viet Nam. Instead, she met
her husband, and her life took a different course. They
have two children, one of whom is also a nurse.
Mims started as a staff nurse, and early on asked herself
if nursing was a job or a career. When she answered that
question, she went back to school first for her bachelor’s
and later for her master’s. The fact that she’s done it all
serves her well in this role. She is able to juggle volume
and knows to involve her staff in decisions that affect them.
All these years in the ED have given her a certain outlook on
life. “Life isn’t a dress rehearsal,” she said. “This is it. You have to
make every day count. In the ED, you learn that quickly. I’ve seen
people who kissed their loved one good bye and never saw them
again. People take life for granted.”
Her wisdom extends to the smallest things. Take the time a
homeless man arrived in the ED with a cast that had been on for
way too long. Once removed, the cast contained all sorts of “crawly
things.” And the smell was bad. Mims suggested a simple solution:
“Keep a jar of Vicks around and put a dab of it under your nose.”
This year the St. Joe ED is expanding, which is good news,
though juggling the space during the interim will be another
challenge. But Mims is up for it.
“I can’t imagine myself anywhere else.”
Kris Mims
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