When Bradford Kirkman-Liff opened his eyes in the recovery room, he saw a vaguely familiar face.
Kirkman-Liff, a participant in a clinical trial for the use of endovascular grafts for thoracic dissection of the descending aorta, had just undergone the procedure at Arizona Heart Hospital. He is professor of Health Policy and Biotechnology at the W. P. Carey School of Business.
The familiar face was that of ASU student Adrianne Gonzales, a senior in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. She is currently completing her clinical care rotation in the PACU (recovery room) at Arizona Heart Hospital.
When Adrianne and the lead nurse introduced themselves to Kirkman-Liff, he saw by Gonzales’ uniform and ID that she was an ASU student nurse. He asked her if she had been a student in his HCR 220 class, and Gonzales responded “Yes I was, Professor Kirkman-Liff.” Then Kirkman-Liff asked Gonzales, “I can't remember – did I give you a good grade?” When Gonzales answered yes, everyone laughed.
Kirkman-Liff described Gonzales as very professional. “She followed instructions carefully, asked questions of the lead nurse when something was unfamiliar, such as the use of some drugs to raise my systolic blood pressure to over 150 to avoid paralysis, because that required continuous monitoring over the next few hours. She was very skillful in removing the arterial lines, and very compassionate in feeding ice chips to me when that was finally allowed.”
“I have always thought the day might come when I might receive care from a former student - I just never thought it would be before she actually graduated from the nursing program!”
