For nurse Kelly Bardales-Lopes, 1-to-1 care is where she — and her patients — thrive.
“I love to work with the community,” she said. “I’m a very talkative person, and I like to build a patient-nurse relationship to promote better health for my patients.”
Bardales-Lopes, who was hired by Northeast Arc in 2021, works in Clinical Services. The division provides a full range of home health care, specializing in the provision of continuous-care nursing services to medically complex children and adults. The services are delivered with care and compassion, are patient/family-centered, and are coordinated with other health care providers as needed.
Bardales-Lopes divides her time between two patients, working six days a week and caring for them in their homes.
“Getting to really know them uniquely is what makes me happy,” she said.
One of her patients, Austin Lam, pictured above with Bardales-Lopes, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair and a communication device. Bardales-Lopes helps him with his medical needs and daily care.
“He knows how to use his Tobii Dynavox very well to communicate with others,” said Bardales-Lopes. “However, things can happen with his device or hearing aids, and he can’t mobilize himself to fix it.”
Lam says she is always attuned to his needs and one step ahead of what is required next.
“More importantly, she is my friend,” he said. “We talk and laugh together. She comes to work every day with a gigantic smile on her face. She is so kind and understanding. Kelly makes my world a better place. I’m so incredibly thankful that Clinical Services recruited her for my care.”
Bardales-Lopes began thinking about a career in nursing while she was a student at Somerville High School.
“I took a vocational class that taught us about health careers, and that drove me toward the nursing field,” she said.
She graduated from nursing school at Salem State University in 2020 and started working in the medical unit at Mass. General Hospital during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She eventually realized she wanted to focus on fewer patients and that’s when she looked into home care.
“It’s been the best fit,” she said.