Alnita Paterson’s Story

From Chardon to the Dominican Republic, UH Geauga nurse combines science with compassion, wherever she cares for patients.

Crouched in a hot, dimly lit shack in the Dominican Republic, Alnita Paterson, RN, with the help of an interpreter, offers a bottle of calamine to a man with shingles and helps his wife to apply the soothing lotion. She obtains the needed antiviral medications for the man and explains how to care for her ill husband.

Three days later, when Alnita returns to check on the man’s condition, he is all smiles and repeats “Gracias, gracias” multiple times, showing her where the blistered rash on his buttock has nearly disappeared. He tells her through the interpreter that his pain is much less and he is able to once again care for his family.

Alnita, a certified wound care nurse at University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center, a campus of UH Regional Hospitals, and her husband, David, traveled to the Dominican Republic in 2015 and again in 2017 through Grace and Peace Mission to minister to the people in this very poor country. “I do medical care, wound care, CPR classes, choking prevention with mothers and children, craft classes, help with the hospital evangelism team, a lot of different things,” she says. “The people there are amazing, so loving and appreciative. You give them a bar of soap, it’s like you gave them the world.”

She credits God, her nursing experience with UH and her husband for giving her the confidence to travel to the Dominican Republic to work with the natives, adding “I might not have had the courage to do it otherwise.”

The trips have been an extension of the personal mission that has shaped her nursing career of more than 40 years. “Being a nurse is so much more than a job,” Alnita says. “It’s part of who I am.”

A graduate of the former Fairview Hospital School of Nursing, Alnita has spent virtually her entire career at what is now UH Geauga Medical Center. “I have always loved it,” she says. “I am very proud to work here and see the growth and many positive changes as a UH hospital.”

She has occupied several different roles over the years, including staff nurse, nursing educator, quality nurse and now wound care. “I have always felt very supported by UH,” she notes. “They recognize your potential and desire to advance and give you opportunities to grow, change and be the best you can be.”

Since the earliest days of her career, Alnita has known she chose correctly. “I’m a caretaker at heart,” she says. “It’s an honor and a blessing to be part of the team that takes such excellent care of our patients.”