Iredell Health Honors Long-Serving Employees A Conversation with Rhea Lamb, RN, IBCLC & Pam Speight, RN, The Birth Place Program Nurse

 Iredell Health System celebrated its 70^th Anniversary on May 1. It’s not just a celebration of passing time. It’s a testament to the dedication and loyalty of the people who made, and continue to make, it all possible — its employees.

Iredell Health System has a long-standing history of caring for its community. What sets Iredell Health System apart is its deep connection to the community it serves. Many of its employees are not just healthcare professionals — they are our neighbors, friends, and family members. In fact, Iredell Health System has more than 70 employees who have worked at Iredell Health System for over 30 years.

When interviewing Rhea Lamb and Pam Speight, it is evident how intertwined their journeys are, beginning at North Iredell High School where they graduated one year apart from each other. Their high school life goals were vastly different from one another.

“I’ve always loved helping people. In high school I wanted to be an accountant, but I really feel like God calls you to do certain things. I don’t know how else to explain it,” said Speight on her decision to pursue nursing instead.

Lamb has a history of healthcare workers in her family but needed a little push to take the plunge.

“Zoe Williams (Lamb’s high school health occupations instructor) loved healthcare like we love healthcare. If she saw you had a spark in your eye for it, she latched on and would direct you. She’d do everything she could to support you,” said Lamb.

Speight and Lamb both felt called to work in healthcare and began working in the field in their late teens. They started at Iredell Memorial Hospital with Speight as a ward secretary in oncology and pediatrics in 1984 and Lamb in x-ray in 1981.

“I started in the x-ray department as an assistant, then on 2 North with Elaine Wilhelm who oriented me to be a nursing assistant,” explained Lamb. She then decided to pursue nursing school.

Lamb planned to graduate nursing school in 1986, but plans changed when she unexpectedly became pregnant with twins, delivering them at just 28 weeks gestation. This was, coincidentally, during her obstetrics rotation at the hospital. While spending time with her twin boys at Baptist Hospital, she felt her calling to working with moms and babies based on the care she received from the nurses there.

Speight, born at Iredell when the hospital was just 10 years old, sees her nursing journey as fibers in the “tapestry of my life woven by God.”

“One of the first people I met at Iredell was a nurse recruiter named Carol Biggs. My original thought was that I was going to apply for a position in the lab, then Carol hired me as a ward secretary,” recounted Speight. “It’s wild how God put me serving in the same hospital I was born in.”

In spring of 1988, Lamb and Speight graduated together from nursing school at Mitchell Community College. Lamb spent her first year as a registered nurse at Baptist Hospital in the NICU before returning home to Iredell. While waiting for a position in obstetrics to open, she once again worked under Elaine Wilhelm on 2 North for two years. Speight started nursing as a new grad at Iredell on the newly constructed 4 North before transitioning to obstetrics in 1994. Since their start in The Birth Place, the two ladies have never left.

The Birth Place has always made strides to support families. Speight recounts various classes they offered, some of which still exist today. One of her fondest memories involved exercise.

“We used to do exercise classes for The Birth Place with Jamie McCurry at the Health Department. In 1999, the hospital sent Jamie and I to Hershey, Pennsylvania for an exercise workshop. It was the most wonderful experience to get to do that. It was the first time I’d ever flown.”

“The big part of being involved in The Birth Place is that we value family so much,” explained Lamb. Speight nods in agreement. “We have an intense love and concern for families, and we want them to get off to a great start. It matters immensely – it matters forever.”

The family environment at Iredell extends well beyond The Birth Place. Both nurses recount memories of S. Arnold Nunnery, hospital administrator at the time they were hired.

In the mid-1990s, The Birth Place nurses would make postpartum home visits. Lamb was scheduled to visit a mother who was living in a presumed unsafe environment and, understandably, didn’t want to visit alone. After several attempts to find another employee to go with her, a social worker from the health department ended up accompanying her as she needed to visit the family as well. When Lamb finished the visit, she received an unexpected phone call.

“When I was leaving the home, who calls me but Arnold Nunnery- the man who wears the three-piece suit. This man meant business. He said ‘I hear that you needed some help on a home visit today. I want you to know- I’ll go with you on that home visit.’ Is that not the dearest thing you’ve ever heard- I mean, it makes me cry to think about it. He told me ‘If you ever need someone to come with you as backup, I will come with you. You just call me.’”

Lamb let Nunnery know she had completed the visit with help from the health department, but his care is something she will never forget.

“Arnold Nunnery had an extreme care for the community. He really valued people whether they could afford to pay or not. He wanted to make sure they had what they needed,” said Lamb.

Speight recounts an experience with Nunnery with a similar sentiment after her husband unexpectedly passed away, leaving her as a single parent to her six- and 10-year-old sons.

“Arnold Nunnery knew his employees. When my husband died in 2003, he and Becky Johnson (nursing administrator at the time) came to my house. That spoke volumes to me.”

Both Speight and Lamb also share memories of inclement weather while working at Iredell, further solidifying the family environment.

“When we used to have bad weather, there was an agreement with a local car dealership where our maintenance people would use the dealership’s cars to pick you up at home. I remember one of the people who came to pick me up was Mr. Nunnery himself,” said Speight. “I also remember being a secretary on 1 West and it was snowing. Instead of trying to find a ride home, they always made sure we had some empty rooms and we would go sleep in them.”

Having started at the hospital in the early 1980s, the nurses have worked at Iredell for more than half of its 70-year history. Some of the original touches are still lingering.

“When you go in the one bathroom closer to the Tea Room area, there’s still a shelf where we used to put our nursing caps. You would put them in boxes and set them on the counter to leave. Some of that stuff is still hanging out,” said Lamb.

While some of their experiences are remembered fondly, some are very sad. During the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, both nurses recall caring for patients with the deadly disease.

“I remember taking care of my first ever AIDS patient,” said Speight. “You gowned up in gloves and layers.”

“Me too. It stands out,” Lamb concurred. “I was working in post-surgical at the time. I had to restart an AIDS patient’s IV. Back then, you were almost afraid to touch them. This man, God bless his soul, he was apologizing and saying ‘I’m so sorry. This must be scary for you.’ I said ‘Sir, it hurts my heart to have to put this stuff on. I hope you don’t think I think less of you for having to do this. I’m sorry you have this condition.’ It had to be terrifying to have that condition. Now, it’s commonplace to put those suits on, but back then it wasn’t heard of.”

Today, all hospital patients are treated in a universal fashion rather than singling patients out, reducing a feeling of segregation for having certain diagnoses.

Care in The Birth Place continues to evolve with changes in community needs. Some of these involve digital translators for patients who don’t speak English, personalized lactation services at no cost, and wire-free monitors for mom & baby. A major change is the consumer’s access to information, whether it be accurate or false. Virtually any information is available at the tip of your fingers with a quick Google search or social media post, whether the information is accurate or not.

“We live on a slippery slope where information is concerned and people are getting false information, mainly on social media,” explained Lamb. “People forget there are people who work in medicine and can help them. Misinformation online has created medical mistrust, and we have to be cognizant of that.”

Speight is mindful of patients who come in with concerns and always strives to ease their worries by earning their trust.

“We want them to have the best birth experience they can.”

The compassionate, personalized care, however, has not changed. Both nurses describe obstetrics as “an organism” rather than a department. The care is highly specialized and involves a tremendous amount of teamwork and communication with multiple departments, including anesthesia, surgical, and phlebotomy. Essentially, they are taking care of two patients at once with mom and baby. Birth, although an exciting experience for most, can be scary with all the moving pieces. OB nurses know just how much the “little things” can ease a patient’s mind.

“We have all these little tricks we do for our patients that other people don’t know like warm pineapple juice and grape juice for bowel movements and alcohol wipes under the nose for nausea,” explained Speight.

Lamb, an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant, also offers prenatal and postpartum lactation services at no cost to patients who deliver their baby at Iredell.

“You could pay $200 a session for a lactation consultant, but our hospital doesn’t charge anything. No matter how many times mom comes in, it’s free. I love that it’s free.”

Speight and Lamb boast over 80 years of combined experience in healthcare, nearly all of which have been at Iredell Memorial Hospital. Why do they stay?

“When you live in this community, your medical needs are met here, and you’ve lost family members here,” Lamb said. “It’s more than a place you work — it’s your family.”

About Iredell Health System

Iredell Health System includes Iredell Memorial Hospital; Iredell Davis Medical Center; Iredell Davis Behavioral Health Hospital; Iredell Mooresville; Iredell Home Health; Iredell Wound Care & Hyperbaric Center; Community and Corporate Wellness; Occupational Medicine; the Iredell Physician Network and more. Iredell Memorial Hospital is the largest and only nonprofit hospital in Iredell County. The comprehensive healthcare organization has 391 licensed beds; close to 2,000 employees; and has approximately 365 healthcare providers representing various specialties. Centers of excellence include Women’s and Children’s; Cardiovascular; Cancer; Surgical Services and Wellness & Prevention. The health system’s Iredell Mooresville campus is home to the area’s only 24-hour urgent care facility, as well as an ambulatory surgery center, imaging center, rehabilitation services, and physician practices. The mission of Iredell Health System is to inspire wellbeing. For a comprehensive list of services and programs, visit www.iredellhealth.org.