Sister Barbara Lynn Hyzak: "Best Medicine" is Compassion
Congregation of Divine Providence

"In the midst of all the technological and medical advances, perhaps the most effective 'medicine' health care professionals can offer their patients is compassion and understanding. Over the years, my desire to heal and comfort the whole person has been a constant in an otherwise life of continuous change and transition, professionally and personally. I have traveled sometimes with ease and sometimes with a bit of turmoil this 'path of providence' with its challenges, its fears, its blessings. In all of this I am a Sister of Divine Providence willing to risk 'opening the door' to new opportunities.

With each new assignment or place of ministry, I've actually experienced many transitions. I have served as a medical surgical nurse and director of nurses. I was staff nurse in the women's surgical unit of a large urban hospital and was director at our CDP sponsored Stella Maris Clinic and later Providence Home and Family Services. I have served as an Adult Nurse Practitioner in a small rural clinic, in a larger primary care clinic, and presently in a medical clinic and a nursing home. My duties of each day provide opportunities to help others transition into whatever life brings at the time.

I have enjoyed the benefits of my life as a nurse for over 30 years. I have never regretted that decision made very early in my life as a Sister of Divine Providence. I am forever energized each time I walk through a doorway to a patient's room, to someone who needs to know that a Provident God cares ƒ and that I care. I remain conscious that I am 'a sacrament of God's providence' (CDP Constitution #11)."