Elatris VanHook is the assistant director of Nursing in Surgical Services at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital. Her two areas of responsibility are Endoscopy and Pre-Admissions Testing.
“I work with the anesthesiologists to prescreen patients for surgeries. They come into the clinic, we do nursing assessments, we do labs, x-rays, EKGs. We do the whole clearance to get them prepared for surgery,” VanHook said.
“In Endoscopy, we do upper and lower procedures, colonoscopies, but we also do special procedures where we are able to treat patients for cancer in the sense of getting the biopsies early, and it’s less invasive.”
VanHook is a St. Louis native who followed the footsteps of her mother, Georgia Anderson, a now retired RN who was a nurse manager of a surgical floor during the Homer G. Philips Hospital era. The St. Louis American Foundation honored her mother with a Salute to Excellence in Health Care Lifetime Achiever award in 2008.
“When I was probably 10 years old, I started going to work with her, every summer, every weekend, every holiday,” VanHook recalled. “I was able to see traumas come in and ICU patients, and I was just right there observing. And I wanted to do it. I just wanted to do this. I saw someone pass out and they did CPR on him and they revived him, and that was like an ‘Ah hah!’ moment for me.”
VanHook’s original goal was to be a trauma ICU nurse, and she did do for 10 years while working at SLU Hospital the first time.
“Then I went to the Pre-Surgery area and was charge nurse there for another 10 years, and left to do home health care due to our family needs – getting our kids back and forth – and then after my kids got to a certain point, I came back to SLU because this is my home,” she said.
She finds joy in knowing that her presence is comforting to her patients.
“I get fulfillment just knowing that my presence is helping them get to the next place, meaning recovery or passing on, or whatever the next step is for them,” VanHook said. “Just to be there to give them comfort in their journey, if it’s just holding their hand, giving them a bath or helping them through a procedure.”
VanHook earned a bachelor of science in Nursing from Rockhurst University/Research College of Nursing in Kansas City. Hospital administration is what she sees in her future. “My ultimate goal is to go back to school and get a degree and be in hospital administration,” VanHook said.
In the community, VanHook volunteers in her children’s schools and with the Bellefontaine Neighbors Swim team.
