“I think a lot of nurses have to be detectives. When you interview patients, you have to get through a line of questions to get the right answer,” Liburd says. “It’s the same going through a chart; you know what data you need to collect, it’s knowing how to find the right information.”
Despite Liburd’s enthusiasm for her work, her job also includes “the bane of [her] existence”: struggling with insurance companies. Liburd describes her frustrating experiences with insurance companies, where she sometimes will spend three hours dealing with them to authorize a patient’s necessary medication.
“It’s not just me, it’s also the RN I work with—we’re all just frustrated with the whole process of getting medications authorized,” Liburd says. “What’s sad is we’re paying nurses to do what they do best and they’re spending a lot of time on the phone with insurance companies. Our money could be spent in other ways, and that’s what’s concerning to me.”
However, despite the aggravations of insurance companies, Liburd’s love for her work has not waned. “I really can’t imagine any other career path,” she says. “I found my niche and I love what I am doing.”
Kevin Stevens is a writer based in New Jersey.
