Sylvia Parker is a nurse practitioner who provides care to patients with complex needs in nursing home settings. Sylvia is known for her exceptional compassion, holistic approach to care, and unique ability to connect with patients and families.
Sylvia is renowned for her patient-centered approach, often kneeling at patients’ bedsides or sitting by them in their wheelchairs to engage fully. Sylvia communicates with patients regardless of their cognitive state or ability to respond, sometimes even playing harmonica for the residents. “The joy Sylvia brings goes beyond medicine,” said a colleague. “The connections she creates through her unique presence with patients, families, and co–workers invite everyone she works with into this higher level of care.”
Sylvia’s approach to family meetings goes beyond clinical explanations. She seeks to understand the patient’s whole story, often starting with simple yet profound questions like, “Tell me, who is your mom?” Her ability to navigate difficult conversations and support families through challenging decisions is highly regarded.
“I have learned one of the most compassionate acts we can do as providers is to be present in uncomfortable and painful moments. A simple gesture of a touch, of eye contact, of even a tear, can bond us in compassion for one another,” she says.
As an educator, Sylvia leads national education sessions for Optum, teaching through storytelling. She emphasizes the importance of understanding each patient’s unique story to provide truly comprehensive care. Her mantra, “Find Their Story,” has become a guiding principle for her colleagues.
In one case, a patient confided in Sylvia that he had hid the fact that he was gay for his entire life. “She was able to really hear him in his loneliness and his lifelong wish to belong, and to share part of her own story with him in a way that helped him feel less alone, and understood, ultimately allowing him to to choose a medical plan of care more congruent with his own values and his likely health trajectory,” said a colleague.
As a member of both the Comanche Indian and LGBTQIA+ communities, Sylvia brings a unique perspective to healthcare. She is acutely aware of personal and systemic biases in medicine and works to address these issues in her practice and teaching. “When we think about health equity, we often think in terms of social determinants of health, early intervention, and public health policy. We don’t often think about the vulnerable elderly in nursing home settings who are in the last months to years of their lives,” said a colleague. “But Sylvia has shown us just how much healing, and justice, are possible even—and especially—in this fragile, sacred space where, more than ever, patients need someone who can witness the fullness of their joy and their sorrow. Sylvia does that better than anyone we’ve ever met.”
Colleagues describe Sylvia as a powerful force for change, an inspirational storyteller, and a fierce advocate for her patients. Her impact extends beyond individual patient care to influencing and educating healthcare providers across the country, making her a truly transformative figure in compassionate healthcare delivery.
“This kind of care goes beyond medicine. The healing that Sylvia offers her patients—all of whom have advanced chronic terminal illness—is often not physical. In fact, it‘s at that very time in which a cure is no longer possible, or treatment is no longer viable, that Sylvia’s true gift of healing really shines,” said a colleague “What she offers patients, and their families, goes far beyond offering medical advice and it transcends pharmaceuticals.”
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