Power of Sibling Love and Inspiration

On this Sib­lings Day, we cel­e­brate the bond between sis­ters. Kate­lyn Fes­senden, nurse prac­ti­tion­er, and Lau­ren Kem­n­er, reg­is­tered nurse in oncol­o­gy, both work here at Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG). Their younger sis­ter, Olivia, was the inspi­ra­tion for their careers.

Olivia was born with spina bifi­da and oth­er med­ical con­di­tions that required her to vis­it hos­pi­tals and clin­ics for surgery and fol­low-ups. The two sis­ters were wit­ness to the care pro­vid­ed by nurs­es, which ulti­mate­ly shaped their career paths.

“Essen­tial­ly, my entire life I’ve been observ­ing, learn­ing, and train­ing to help my sis­ter with her med­ical needs. Nurs­ing is a nat­ur­al way of life for me, and I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t a nurse,” Fes­senden said.

Kem­n­er echoed Fessenden’s sen­ti­ments, ​“We both saw first­hand the amaz­ing care that our sis­ter received and knew that we want­ed to be a part of that.”

As nurs­es, both Fes­senden and Kem­n­er find ful­fill­ment in see­ing the pos­i­tive trans­for­ma­tions of their patients, whether it’s phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al, or psy­cho­log­i­cal. They show the same com­pas­sion to them they have shown to their sis­ter through­out her life.

“I want each patient inter­ac­tion to be a pos­i­tive one. When the vis­it is over and my patient is leav­ing, I hope they are feel­ing bet­ter than when they came in to see me,” Fes­senden said.

The two admit to being com­pet­i­tive with each oth­er grow­ing up, but despite that sib­ling rival­ry, the sis­ters grew to have a last­ing influ­ence on each oth­er when it comes to their careers. Their ded­i­ca­tion to improv­ing the lives of those in their care is a tes­ta­ment to the pow­er of sib­ling love and inspiration.

“Hav­ing a sis­ter enter­ing the nurs­ing field has been a dri­ving force to con­tin­ue to do bet­ter. We often have mutu­al patients, so I will often uti­lize her oncol­o­gy exper­tise to answer my ques­tions or help my patients to make for a smoother tran­si­tion in their treat­ment plan,” Fes­senden shared.

The lessons they have learned through Olivia’s jour­ney have made them bet­ter nurs­es, they shared. In being there for their sis­ter dur­ing her strug­gles, they found inspi­ra­tion and pur­pose to make an impact on others.