Caring Comes Full Circle
A young girl caring for family and friends becomes nurse who advocates for sick children.
Caring for children has always come naturally to Janet Zaibek, RN, MSN, CPNP, who says even as a child herself she was taking care of family and friends who were hurt or sick. “If anybody got sick or was bleeding, I was always the one that would stick around and help take care of them instead of running away,” she recalls. When it came time for college and choosing a career, nursing was her natural first choice.
Zaibek graduated from St. John College in 1976 and began her career in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at MetroHealth Medical Center. She remained for two years before heading to University of Wisconsin where she earned her master’s degree in perinatal nursing. She returned to MetroHealth as the assistant director of nursing for the Obstetrics unit, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and the Department of Pediatrics. In 1987, Zaibek moved to Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital to open the Lakewood Hospital Pediatric Unit and then the Obstetrics Unit where she focused on mothers and babies.
Zaibek joined Cleveland Clinic in 2002. Currently her position includes evaluating children referred to the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital for Rehabilitation, physician outreach for the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital, and nursing education.
Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital for Rehabilitation is located south of the main campus and provides a number of services for children with special needs. These children often need extra support to function at their maximum potential, Zaibek says. And whether it’s helping them get back to their baseline or helping the child and family discover a new baseline, Zaibek says she has a very unique role in which she relies on her clinical experience to work with physicians, nurses, and families to assess, evaluate and plan the best possible care for each patient.
Zaibek sees each child that is referred to the hospital before they’re transferred. She conducts an initial evaluation of each patient to assess the child’s specific needs and the level of care that will be required. She feels that her experience offers her the insight to look at the patient’s needs in a holistic way. “Instead of just their immediate needs, I look at their long-term needs too, and I look at the needs of the family,” she says. “Every patient is unique. You can’t fit any patient into any diagnosis or any way you care for them. You care for each as if they’re the first time you cared for that diagnosis or that child and you plan for that child’s care based on their unique needs,” she adds.
Among the assessments she conducts, she looks to identify things that will help the team at Children’s Hospital for Rehabilitation prepare for the patient. When patients have specific needs, Zaibek works with the nurses to ensure they are prepared and properly educated to continue the level of care the patient requires.
Through her physician outreach work, she aims to increase awareness of and connect referring physicians to the many resources available through Children’s Hospital for Rehabilitation. “I can’t tell you how many physicians, after they’ve toured Children’s Rehab, say, ‘My gosh, I’ve lived in Cleveland for so many years and I never knew this was here,’” Zaibek says.
In each of her roles, she stresses that human contact is so important. In physician outreach, getting in front of the doctors and physically showing them the resources, facilities, and abilities of the staff is much more powerful than any mailer. And, parents have access to a wealth of information through the Internet. Often their knowledge needs to be put into context and clarified by someone with deeper expertise.
It’s challenging because, she says, there are never enough hours in the day. She has learned to prioritize, delegate and to rely on those around her with varied experience. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. “It’s very rewarding because at the end of the day I feel like I’ve at least made a little contribution to a child’s life,” Zaibek says.
