A close-knit group, Faith and her family took a family vacation to Gulf Shores last summer. With her are her parents, Joe and Becky Lipham; her sister and brother-in-law, Macy and Jake Ackermann with their baby, Henry; her sister, Hallie; and her brother, Cole.

In 2020, at age 22, Texarkana native Faith Lipham entered the largest portion of the American healthcare workforce: nursing. Despite the occupation’s increasing popularity, the United States has been experiencing a nursing shortage for decades, fuelled largely by an aging population (more demand for health care) and educational bottlenecking (too few resources to educate the many aspiring nursing students).

In addition, nursing is largely undervalued, as is the case with many female-dominated fields. Compared to other careers requiring a commensurate amount of training and skill, care professions such as nursing often offer lower salaries and longer working hours. These factors, compounded by the inherent physical, mental, and emotional difficulty of nursing, contribute to our nation’s deficit of 1.6 million nurses and nursing aids.

*During July 2018, Macy and Jake were married at Ramage Farms in Hooks, Texas. With the newly-married couple are Hallie, Joe, Becky, Faith, and Cole. (Photo by Kendal Dockery Photography)*

Of course, during the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses are up against even greater hurdles. When Faith began her first nursing job in Baylor Dallas’ Cardiothoracic Transplant ICU, “it was like going to war,” she said. “We were super scared. People were dying. Families couldn’t visit. We didn’t know what to expect. It felt like we [new nurses] had been thrown to the wolves.”

At Baylor, many of Faith’s patients were in the hospital for up to six months. Caring for them physically and emotionally during the pandemic was rewarding, educational, and depressing. Faith, who describes herself as “not a city girl,” was exhausted, lonely, and homesick. After talking with her older sister, who is also a nurse, she decided to return to Texarkana, where she took a position in CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System’s Emergency Department.

*Even though being a nurse is very challenging, Faith has stayed hopeful and proud that she has chosen this profession.*

In August of 2021, after only a few months on the job at the ER, Faith was invited to play trivia at Redbone Magic Brewing one night after work. She drove to the brewery straight from work, still wearing scrubs and that day’s stress. After a couple of hours, right as the announcer was preparing to declare a winner, a woman at a nearby table passed out, falling and hitting her head on Faith’s teammate’s chair. Faith rushed to check on her, and when the woman insisted she was fine, Faith helped her back into her seat—but she didn’t leave her side. “I just didn’t have a good feeling,” Faith recalled. “She said she was fine, but my gut was telling me otherwise.”

Within minutes, the woman went “ghost white.” Her eyes rolled. She was unresponsive to pain, and she had no pulse. “I kind of just went into work mode,” said Faith. She began to perform CPR, all the while instructing someone to set a timer for two minutes. After a full round of CPR, the woman still had no pulse, so Faith continued. “I obviously didn’t have any oxygen or medication or equipment,” she said. “All I had were my hands.” After 3.5 minutes of CPR, the woman was revived.

*Faith was surrounded by family during her graduation from college. With her are her mother, Becky; brother, Cole; sister, Hallie; sister, Macy; and father, Joe.*

As EMS carried the woman out of the brewery, staff and other patrons approached Faith, sharing their awe and admiration. Among them was a doctor, who said, “Holy cow, I’m a doctor, but I wasn’t going to get in your way. You didn’t need me. You just took over. You’re a badass.” According to Fox Sports Radio 1400, the Redbone manager said Faith was “clutch”—a term that describes someone who performs under immense pressure.

Faith knows that her experiences in high-stress environments served her well in this situation. “Being in the ICU at Baylor and now having experience in critical situations in the ER at St. Michael have taught me how to respond quickly in life-threatening cases,” she said.

However, for her training and instincts to kick in so quickly and automatically in an off-duty setting surprised even Faith herself. “It is wild to me that I made such fast decisions on my own,” she admitted. “I later heard that there were multiple doctors in the area, but nobody came up to me. I just took over. It was such a serious moment, and something clicked in me, like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve really gotta do this.’ And so I just kind of threw orders. I was full adrenaline mode.”

*On September 3, 2019, the Liphams gathered friends and family together at their farm in Wamba for Macy’s gender reveal.*

As word of the event spread, Faith felt gratitude—not that people were singing her praises but rather that people were reflecting a newfound or renewed understanding of what nurses do every day. “It wasn’t just about me saving a life,” she said. “Becoming a nurse in the midst of a pandemic has felt challenging and even hopeless at many points. This event reminded me to stay inspired, hopeful, and proud to be a nurse. This circumstance, while certainly humbling, really just represents the work nurses do every day.”

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