Making the Rounds continued
A day’s work
In just over four hours, Nancy Greenberg
has talked to more than 100 people
looking for directions, from shackled
juvenile offenders with asthma problems to
manicured ladies of a certain age. Hers is
the first face that many patients see, and
she is the first person available to answer
questions and guide patients to where they
need to go on the growing Scott & White
campus. Mrs. Greenberg is committed to
her valuable work and spends Tuesday
afternoon at the hospital information desk
and Thursday afternoon at the clinic
information desk.
A line several people deep forms at her
post as she looks up patients’ room
numbers for their visiting families and
friends, scouts out appointment locations,
and arranges shuttles to different parts of
the campus. “It’s a little like watching a
parade go by,” she laughs, in between
calling for shuttle service for a patient
heading to the ophthalmology department
and guiding a young woman cradling her
baby bump to her obstetrics appointment.
“The smiles are my paycheck,” Mrs.
Greenberg says. Her fondest memories are of
the people who’ve stopped by on their way
out of the hospital to thank her for her help.
And it’s not just smiles—sometimes
there is chocolate, too. One man, a
consultant, is frantic to hunt down a Diet
Coke between meetings. Mrs. Greenberg
directs him to the pharmacy. He’s back a
few minutes later with a relieved look, a
can of soda, and four Tootsie Rolls for her.
Later a valet drops off some mini Snickers
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THE CATALYST Winter 11 | www.sw.org
Nancy Greenberg and Jean Sykes
bars. She graciously accepts all the treats
from grateful patients, visitors, even staff.
But a hospital is not always a happy
place, and the faces of some of the
people asking Mrs. Greenberg for help
show that. One older couple come in
looking for their middle-aged son. He has
been hospitalized again because of chronic
mental health issues.
“He might be in a special room or
something,” the patient’s mother says,
looking tired. “No, no,” Mrs. Greenberg
says, trying to soothe her. “He’s right here.”
She gives the man’s parents his room
number and tells them they can see him
right away. The couple walks slowly toward
the elevators.
A desire to help
In the decade that Mrs. Greenberg has
volunteered at Scott & White, she has
worked in two positions—the last 18
months at the clinic and hospital
information desks and, for eight years
before that, in the surgery waiting room.
There she kept patients’ families updated
on how their family member’s procedure
was going, and she organized meetings
with the families and physicians after
the surgery was complete.
“Often the most pleasant people there
were the ones whose family
member had the most serious
conditions,” she says. Depending
on the procedure, some families
stayed in the waiting room for
hours. Volunteers like Mrs.
Greenberg made sure they
remembered to eat something and
encouraged them to take walks and rest.
“I feel good when I can give people the
help they need,” she says. And she always
wants to do more. When patients sit
waiting for wheelchair assistance, Mrs.
Greenberg has to resist the urge to find a
chair and take them to their appointments
herself. “It’s my inclination,” she says.
“Service from the heart”
Mrs. Greenberg, who lives in Belton, Texas,
first moved to Temple from Alexandria,
Louisiana, 11 years ago. Her son, Robert
Greenberg, MD, now vice chairman of
Scott & White’s Emergency Department,
was working and raising his family in
Temple. “Retirement wasn’t really in my
vocabulary,” she says. Mrs. Greenberg was a
manager in a real estate appraisal office, but
volunteering was always part of her life. She
had volunteered at the public library and
she also worked phone banks for public
radio fundraisers. But Mrs. Greenberg—
who has a son, James Greenberg, in
Lewisville and a daughter, Sally Berkowitz,
in Houston—wanted to be a nurse when
she was young. Her daughter now says,
“You are finally getting to do what you
always wanted!” Mrs. Greenberg also knits,
sews, prefers having two dogs to just one,