Page 24 - Johns Hopkins Nursing Magazine Spring 2023 - Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

NEWS FROM JOHNS HOPKINS NURSING SKY’S THE LIMIT

Veronica Lee took a leap of faith into the U.S. and Johns Hopkins.

She wouldn’t hesitate to do it again

eronica Lee could have simply stayed home spinal cord injury or coming off orthopedic surgery,
in South Korea. She’d graduated from Ewha and has noticed a clear difference in the prescription
22 V Womans University in Seoul, her hometown, of opioids here, where misuse has helped fuel an
and already earned a Future Nursing Leader Award from addiction crisis. Pain medications—including opioids—
the Global Korean Nursing Foundation. An admitted are of course not bad in and of themselves. With
home-body, Lee insists that she gets much of her energy proper use, education, and understanding among
from being in cozy surroundings. Yet there she was, patients and caregivers alike, they can be an important
free-falling out of an airplane somewhere high above tool in pain management.
Australia, then a couple of months later parachuting solo
into a new career and life in the United States. So, upon joining the family nurse practitioner track at the
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in 2019, Lee’s Doctor
“I had no family, friends, or cousins who were living in the of Nursing Practice scholar project has involved a focus
United States. It was just me. I don’t know how I did it at on implementing a pain education program for patients
that time. I was brave,” Lee explains of her big move in discharged after orthopedic surgery. Her project focuses
2018. “But I know that the decision to be here in the U.S. on educating patients on risks and side effects of opioids
turned out to be one of the best choices and changed as well as possible benefits of alternatives like non-opioid
JOHNS HOPKINS NURSING SPRING 2023 “I told you so.” care, “Their pain management falls apart” and the risk of
analgesics and non-pharmacological methods. She
everything in my life.”
seeks ways to educate them on the proper use of opioids
after discharge, where without the controls of inpatient
If her mother in Seoul wanted to, she could easily say,
misuse or addiction grows.
“My mom always told me, ‘You have to go out and meet
people.’ ” The message has stuck, with a few helpful
She says, “Being able to self-manage pain is an essential
part of recovery after surgery. To do so, patients need to
reminders: “I engraved on my AirPods, ‘Go out and do
something.’ I always kind of push myself to go out and
enhance their knowledge and confidence in managing
pain. Although patient education is a fundamental
look around.”
component of perioperative management, pain
education practices remain inconsistent and incomplete
Since before landing in the U.S., Lee has served as a
in the hospital setting. And this puts patients at risk for
rehabilitation nurse to stroke patients and those with