He was working the evening shift as an assistant on CHOC’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
She was a brand new nursing resident on the ground.
“I believed he was so dreamy,” Kristin remembers.
Kristin, too, had caught David’s eye. However he hadn’t discovered a option to break the ice with informal chit chat.
One evening, Kristin walked as much as David.
“Do you may have a stapler?”
Flustered, he answered, “It’s over there,” his eyes avoiding her gaze.
And so was born a love story that culminated, two years later, with the wedding of Kristin and David Fischer.
Now wed for 14 years, they’re the dad and mom of dual sons Noah and Cole, 11, and daughter Kennedy, 4.
Extremely regarded
Right this moment, Kristin is the nursing director of the NICU and David is a cost nurse within the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).
Kristin oversees all three NICU models on the hospital, managing a group of 350 nurses who take care of sufferers throughout 104 beds in Orange.
David cares for older sufferers with all kinds of diagnoses and is concerned with medical, surgical procedure, and trauma packages on a number of flooring.
Each are extremely revered and admired by their colleagues.
“Collectively they don’t seem to be solely wonderful associates and leaders at CHOC however are elevating an attractive household,” says Nancy Kraus, govt director of essential care who has labored intently with the 2.
“Kristin is a tremendous chief who strives to be related to all of the members of the NICU nursing and multidisciplinary group,” Nancy provides. “She leads many necessary hospital initiatives and is an excellent position mannequin for the leaders on her group.”
David will get related excessive remarks. Dr. Jason Knight, medical director of the PICU, has been working intently with him for a decade.
“He’s at all times been and continues to be one of the crucial hard-working and devoted nurses, each on the bedside and as a cost nurse and trauma code nurse,” Dr. Knight says. “From a medical standpoint, he at all times shows distinctive judgment, gives wonderful affected person care, and works extraordinarily onerous to help the essential care physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists.
“From an administrative and triage standpoint, I’ve the utmost confidence in David’s talents and know that each one PICU sufferers will obtain wonderful care in a well timed method. He has a optimistic perspective and humorousness, enabling him to collaborate properly with physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists so as to coordinate affected person care.”
The mother-in-law connection
Kristin didn’t comprehend it on the time, however one of many managers who interviewed her for the residency program after she graduated from nursing faculty at California State College, Lengthy Seashore was David’s mom, Marie. It was August 2008, and Marie was a nursing supervisor of the CHOC NICU.
“She demonstrated professionalism and her solutions to the behavioral scenario interview questions impressed me,” Marie remembers.
When he met Kristin, David hadn’t but selected a profession in nursing after accidents had ended his pursuit as knowledgeable baseball participant. He was contemplating medical machine gross sales.
After graduating from California State College, Fullerton, with a level in communications advertising and promoting, he served as an intern in CHOC’s advertising and communications division earlier than becoming a member of the NICU as a unit assistant.
When Kristin was three-months pregnant with their twins, David came upon he was accepted into nursing faculty. He graduated in 2014 with Kristin changing into nurse supervisor of the NICU the next yr. She’s been the director since 2022.
Advantages of working collectively
Like many {couples} in healthcare, Kristin and David discover that talking the identical “workplace language” has its perks.
“It’s nice that we work collectively within the medical subject, as a result of I can come house and speak to her about my shift, and he or she will get it – and vice versa,” David says.
“We are able to sympathize with one another extra,” Kristin provides.
Their shared expertise goes past being nurses; as former NICU dad and mom, Kristin and David have a deep understanding of what households undergo. Their sons, Noah and Cole, have been born six weeks untimely and frolicked within the NICU, giving them firsthand expertise of the challenges many dad and mom face.
“I get pleasure from speaking to sufferers and serving to information dad and mom by means of the method,” David says. “Plenty of dad and mom really feel helpless, however I inform them, ‘Hey, I went by means of this, too.”
Not only a job
Outdoors of CHOC, David coaches his sons’ Little League baseball group and the Fischers love doing issues collectively as a household.
They make annual visits to Hawaii to go to Kristin’s sister and revel in household dance battles, S’extra nights, and pool days at house.
Each can’t think about working anyplace else than CHOC.
“It’s the individuals,” David says.
“And the top quality of care we offer,” Kristin provides.
“CHOC practices household values,” David says, “and the managers and leaders actually encourage you to develop right here, and so they help you.” Kristin has graduate levels in nursing and enterprise administration. David plans to pursue a grasp’s diploma in nursing management.
Provides Kristin: “We don’t really feel we’re going to work however as an alternative doing one thing we love.”
Marie says it’s been a pleasure to witness the love between David and Kristin develop through the years.
“They work as a group supporting each other of their pursuit of development and growth,” Marie says. “I proceed to be amazed how the legacy of CHOC has impacted our household.”