Celebrating Our People – Meet Angel

Nursing was a natural career for certified nurse practitioner Angel Patterson—her late mother was a nurse for 30 years, including a stint at a Saint Joseph hospital. “Growing up, I saw what she did. I just always admired her drive to help people,” she said.

Angel works in orthopedics at the Saint Joseph Medical Group in Corbin and London, which honored her last year as Advanced Practice Provider of the Year.

She sees patients in the office and also makes hospital rounds for post-operative checks and consultation—the ministry treats patients of all ages for everything from joint replacement to broken bones to carpel tunnel syndrome. She said she enjoys working in orthopedics because of its frequent positive outcomes. 

“For the most part when people come to you, it’s for something that you expect to improve. There are some patients who won’t improve, but most patients in orthopedics you can impact in some way that they have a positive outcome,” Angel said. “I love being able to see a patient and be able to help them understand what is going on and develop a plan of care for them that they are satisfied with and they’re comfortable with.” 

 Part of this is making sure she communicates with patients using everyday language to promote understanding.

“I just think it’s important for people to understand what is going on with their disease process or injury—talk to them, tell them what’s going on, what they can expect,” she said. “Most of the time when somebody understands what’s going on with their body, it’s easier for them to deal with the healing or the pain or whatever they’re facing.”

Angel takes the Saint Joseph values to heart: “I am a Christian and I think God’s expectation of us is to love other people, and I think that’s why I do what I do. And I think he led me into nursing and led me into being a nurse practitioner, so I try to always remember that when I’m seeing people.”

Similarly, she defines humankindness as “treating everybody the way you would want to be treated. Everybody wants to be listened to and to be treated with respect and kindness.”

Angel started her current job in 2019 after working in family practice and urgent care elsewhere for 2 ½ years after becoming a nurse practitioner. She’s been a nurse since 1990, mostly working in the Saint Joseph system.

“I have stayed with Saint Joseph because they are a system that allows you to express your Christianity,” Angel said. “I am able to pray with patients and able to talk about Christ with patients and that’s really important to me.”

Her hours away from the Saint Joseph Medical Group are often spent in the outdoors with her family—husband Daniel, three children and two grandchildren—hiking, biking, swimming, kayaking and the like. “We are a very close family and we love being outside.”

Humankindness works here. Learn more about careers at CHI Saint Joseph Health.