Country Music With a Cause

Thanks to Lucas, caregivers at Flaget Memorial Hospital stay thoroughly entertained.

“On the Spirit Team, it’s so exciting to help plan special events for employees throughout the year,” Lucas said. “At our Christmas lunch, I play music and sing, and a lot of the employees come up and sing with me. It’s a blessing to employees that the hospital does things to show its appreciation.” 

Lucas worked in a very different role when she first began her journey at Flaget Memorial Hospital 11 years ago. Starting out in emergency care, Lucas rose in rank until she became supervisor of outpatient care. When a position at the sleep lab opened, she thought she would be well-suited to the role and applied. She has now been putting patients first at the sleep lab for three years.

In her current position, Lucas helps patients register and get scheduled for sleep studies, which consist of two special tests used to indicate whether a patient is experiencing sleep problems. A patient stays overnight for the first portion of the study and then remains in the sleep lab for a follow-up daytime study. Since Lucas is in a management position, she usually only works with patients in person when they come in for daytime studies.

For Lucas, providing musical entertainment has always been one of the most rewarding aspects of her job. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, she put on several special performances for patients in the cancer center. Even outside her performances at the hospital, music has always been a huge part of Lucas’s life. As the daughter of a country music artist, she developed a love for the genre and even wrote her own songs, which she recorded and performed live in Nashville when she was younger.“

It was a big thing for me at the time, and it’s a big thing to talk about now,” Lucas said. “Even though I didn’t make it in country music, I still had the privilege to do those things. I’m very appreciative that I got to.” 

When Lucas helps her patients schedule a sleep study and calls with appointment reminders, she aims to inform and reassure them as much as possible.

“I answer a lot of questions regarding what to expect during a sleep study,” she said. “I find everything rewarding because I’m helping patients.”

Similarly, with every concert, Lucas’s No. 1 goal is to make everyone’s day a little brighter. Lucas is grateful and excited to be able to serve the Flaget Memorial Hospital community with both her musical abilities and her passion for patient care.