Exceeding the definition of a nurse: National Nurses Week celebrates the vital role nurses play in the delivery of care
A registered nurse, Kari Machelli also serves as the associate vice president of Integrated Primary Health Services at The Wright Center for Community Health. Kari says her “patients become like family” and “you really get to know them. I treat them how you would want your family treated.”
Amid thank-you cards and family photos atop Kari Machelli’s desk stands a wooden picture frame with a nurse definition artistically printed on paper:
- One who goes above and beyond the call of duty.
- A unique soul who will pass through your life for a minute and impact it for eternity.
A registered nurse and associate vice president of Integrated Primary Health Services at The Wright Center for Community Health, Machelli embodies both definitions and then some. She is one of more than two dozen nurses at The Wright Center, which recognizes every day, but especially during National Nurses Week (May 6-12), the vital role these professionals play in delivering high-quality, whole-person primary health services.
Patients have Machelli’s cellphone number and know to call – no matter the hour or day – with questions, for help, or just to chat. Home visits to provide medical care, check in on patients’ well-being, or even to ensure a 97-year-old widow gets a needed walk-in bathtub are common practices. She also can get tough when needed, especially with insurance companies trying to deny needed patient medications or tests.
“The patients become like a family,” says the Blakely resident and 24-year Wright Center employee. “You really get to know them. I treat them how you would want your family treated.”
Even the more challenging patients, the ones who refuse to listen or follow doctors’ orders, are ever present in her mind and heart.
“You search for the barriers and try to figure out other ways to try to reach them,” says Machelli, a Taylor native and Riverside High School graduate who earned her nursing degree from Penn State University. “When that doesn’t work, you keep trying.”
The same care goes into another aspect of her job – overseeing her “team” of Opioid Use Disorder Center of Excellence case managers, certified recovery specialists, and community health workers. Together, they work to provide whole-person primary health services, such as collaborating with The Wright Center’s behavioral health workers to ensure patients with substance use and other disorders are connected to primary care services or identifying any social and economic issues patients face that may cause health needs to take a back seat.
Inside the office she shares with Kathleen Doyle, director of patient-centered services, at the Mid Valley Practice in Jermyn, the many hats Machelli wears quickly become evident: leader, innovator, problem-solver, teacher, researcher, advisor, advocate, caregiver, friend – not to mention wife to Tony, mother of teenage daughters, Mia and Gianna, and dog mom to German Shepherd Nikka.
Kari Machelli is one of the many nurses at The Wright Center for Community Health who plays a vital role in delivering high-quality, whole person primary health services to patients of all ages, regardless of their insurance status, ZIP code, or ability to pay.
The office’s hinged door is often more like a revolving one. In the course of 15 minutes one recent afternoon, four staffers popped into the office for help or to collaborate with Machelli. Unfrazzled, she quickly researches an answer, prints out needed doctors’ orders, offers a solution, and provides patient updates – all mixed with some quick wit that ensures they leave smiling.
“Kari possesses an unwavering commitment to community health, particularly in her tireless advocacy for patients and her round-the-clock care,” says Dr. Jignesh Sheth, chief medical and information officer of The Wright Center for Community Health. “She has played a significant role in the advancement of nursing education, retention, policy, and practice, and in the promotion of equality, diversity, and inclusion in her leadership and collaboration across The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education.”
The nursing landscape is vastly different from the days when she worked as an RN in the private practice owned by The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education President and CEO Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak. When Thomas-Hemak joined The Wright Centers, then called the Scranton-Temple Residency Program, more than two decades ago, Machelli followed as an RN Care Manager.
Goals to provide whole-person primary health and fully integrated services so patients’ health and wellness needs are met in just one location were foreign in those days, she says.
“Back then, nurses were also like social workers,” Machelli says. “We would help patients get clothing and food.”
The Wright Center’s growing team of community health workers, a groundbreaking addition to the staff about six years ago, now uncovers those needs – clothing, employment, food, GED programs, health insurance, housing, transportation, and more – and assists patients in meeting them.
“Our community health workers are an added benefit to help patients by assessing barriers,” Machelli says. “Maybe they need transportation or food. We plug them in with the programs and services they need. We try to be an advocate for them. … One of the biggest challenges is figuring out the barriers.”
Kari Machelli, a registered nurse and associate vice president of Integrated Primary Health Services at The Wright Center, center, accepts the 2022 APEX at the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers Annual Conference and Clinical Summit.
She says that finding resources, particularly in Luzerne County, where fewer are available than in neighboring Lackawanna County, can be difficult.
“Transportation is a big barrier in Luzerne,” says Machelli, a three-year board director for The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement, which focuses on improving access to whole-person primary health services while addressing the social determinants of health that affect patients.
A champion of the nursing industry, Machelli also volunteers on the Northeastern Pennsylvania Health Care Foundation’s Careers in Care Nursing Scholarships Committee, along with Tina Jones, associate vice president/HR business partner, clinical human resources at The Wright Center. The initiative was established to help combat the growing nursing shortage in the region.
“We get a lot of applicants, and it’s been a good way to retain nurses locally,” says Machelli. “A lot of people don’t realize there are so many aspects to nursing today. You can be hands-on, sit behind a desk, work for an insurance company, and so much more. Being a nurse is very rewarding.”
She pauses and reaches for her cellphone. She wants to see how one of her patients is doing and ensure he is taking his correct dosage of medication. Before ending the call, she makes him promise to call her if he needs anything at all.
Across from her desk, on a wall above a small corner table and chairs, another framed paper personifies Machelli: A statewide award for exemplary customer service.
The Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers selected Machelli to receive its 2022 Awards for Primary Care Excellence (APEX) in recognition of her stellar customer service to health center patients and colleagues.
“I’m just doing my job,” she humbly says. “The real reward is seeing your patients’ progress.”
The Wright Center, headquartered in Scranton, operates 10 primary and preventive care practices in Northeast Pennsylvania, including a mobile medical and dental vehicle called Driving Better Health. Its locations offer integrated whole-person primary health services, meaning patients typically have the convenience of going to a single location to access medical, dental, and behavioral health care, as well as community-based addiction treatment and recovery services. For more information, go to TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019.
