Grace Fabito is a clinical lead nurse for neurosurgery who has been at Duke for 22 years. In short, her job is to “collaborate with a lot of different disciplines in order to make surgery happen seamlessly,” she says.
Grace credits a family-friendly work environment for her longevity at Duke. “In our department, we have flexible schedules, which is very good for people with families,” she says. “When my kids were small, I worked weekends so that I could be with them during the week.”
After Grace’s first exposure to the operating room as a student, she was hooked. “I love surgery, the more complicated the better, because the more complex, the more I learn,” she says. “I don’t like to be bored.”
Grace grew up in the Philippines and received her nursing degree from University of Pangasinan before emigrating in 1992. She worked for two years in a nursing home before applying to Duke in 1996. She has four grown children, three sons and a daughter. She and her husband, Allan Fabito, an anesthesia technician at Duke, love to go hiking and camping. One of their favorite places is Grayson Highlands Park in Virginia, where you can encounter wild ponies.
At one time, Grace considered becoming a patient advocate – but feels like that’s what she ended up doing. “I’m always a patient advocate. I have to make sure patients are safe and well taken care of, especially when they are asleep. The thing with that is that they forget you, but that’s OK,” she says. “I tell my staff you have to treat this patient as a family member. I tell them, ‘This could be your mom.’”