Like Mother, Like Daughter: Lori’s Story

Lori K. didn’t have to look far to find her role mod­el. She found it at home — in her mom, a nurse at Quin­cy Clin­ic, now known as Quin­cy Med­ical Group. Watch­ing her mom care for patients with such heart and ded­i­ca­tion left a pow­er­ful impression.

“My moth­er was a great nurse, and she real­ly loved what she did. I grew up in a small town and about half the town would come by our house to see my mom before they would call the doc­tor,” Lori shared.

These ear­ly mem­o­ries of her mom made a last­ing impact on Lori and shaped the direc­tion of her own life. From a young age, she knew exact­ly what she want­ed to do.

“I think back at age 10, I knew I want­ed to be a nurse, and that nev­er changed,” Lori said. ​“I want­ed to be like her.”

That child­hood dream turned into a career when Lori start­ed in pedi­atrics at the same clin­ic, work­ing along­side its founder, Dr. Wal­ter Whitaker.

“He was an amaz­ing diag­nos­ti­cian,” she said. ​“He could just tell by lis­ten­ing to his patients, and I learned a lot about the impor­tance of lis­ten­ing from him.”

Those ear­ly expe­ri­ences taught Lori that being present and tru­ly lis­ten­ing was just as impor­tant as any treatment.

Though life took her and her fam­i­ly away for a while, they returned to Quin­cy in 1995 — and for Lori, that meant return­ing to the place where it all began.

“I liked work­ing with the clin­ic the first time, so it was an easy deci­sion to come back.”

She picked up where she left off in pedi­atrics, and lat­er moved into ortho­pe­dics, where she’s worked for the past 15 years.

“What I love most about it is the peo­ple,” Lori said. ​“It’s some­thing new every day.”

Now, with over three decades in the field, Lori con­tin­ues to bring warmth and con­nec­tion to every patient encounter.

“I like help­ing peo­ple, and I’ve met a lot of good peo­ple in my career,” she said. ​“Every­one has a sto­ry, and every­one is valued.”

Lori’s advice to those con­sid­er­ing a health­care career? ​“Nurs­ing is a great field to get into. There are a lot of options.”

Her jour­ney began with a child­hood dream and a pow­er­ful exam­ple at home — one she now car­ries for­ward in the care she gives to her own patients each day.