By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com

Dallas may not be the most desirable place to be right now but, when it comes to Kimberly Creel and her chosen career path, there is no place else she’d rather be right now.

Creel graduated from Wynford High School in 2009 and attended Cleveland State University. She will officially receive her diploma in December with a bachelor’s degree in music therapy and a minor in speech and hearing sciences.

Before entering into college, Creel never associated herself as a music person. But that soon changed.

“I found my identity through music,” Creel said. “No matter what struggle or where I was at in life, music helped me through it. I wanted to do something that would allow me to show people the power of music and help them identify the same power within themselves.”

Creel admitted that music therapy had been a late discovery due in part because the field is fairly new. But that didn’t stop her from pursuing her degree or taking an internship position at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas earlier this year.

Creel currently works in the Music Therapy Department as a music therapy intern along with four board-certified music therapists. She organizes and leads individual and group sessions to help patients reduce anxiety and provide them with alternate outlets for expression and relaxation skills.

Or, to put it simply: “I get to go to patient rooms and jam out to Frozen, be an active member of a kid’s band, sing kids to sleep, write songs about hating needle pokes, help support the grief process, provide distraction during procedures, and discuss anything and everything that is on a kid’s mind in this scary place.”

She added that she is able to build therapeutic relationships with the patients and their families in order to make their hospital experience a little better. She is also a part of a patient’s treatment team and assists in ensuring that their psychosocial needs are met.

Creel was a part of the Texas healthcare system when Thomas Eric Duncan became the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Texas Health Presbyterian is just over 18 miles from Children’s Medical Center of Dallas.

Despite the hospitals being in the same metropolis, Creel had faith in her healthcare system at the Children’s Medical Center.

“There is a concern in the Dallas community but I think from the healthcare stand point this is not the only virus that staff members come in contact with that they could possibly contract,” Creel said.

She explained that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) department at Children’s Medical Center continuously researches on how the hospital can best take care of its patients and staff.

“With Ebola being identified, it gives the CDC department a better edge on keeping the hospital environment as safe as possible by having a better idea of what to expect and how to react to this virus,” Creel said. “It allows them to test a virus like Ebola against our policies already instated to assure the validity of our protocols.”

Creel noted that Ebola isn’t the only virus that someone in the medical field can catch from an infected patient.

“Honestly, in comparison to other viruses you can get from handling bodily fluids, Ebola wouldn’t be my biggest fear,” Creel said, explaining that Ebola is treatable and can be completely removed from an infected person’s system after treatment.

“From a non-hospital stand point, I do not feel threatened by these cases of Ebola popping up,” Creel said. “This virus is only transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids. I’m not a vampire and don’t partake in risky behaviors. This virus is serious business, I agree 100 percent, but the way the news blows it up you would think you could catch it from stepping on a crack or saying beetle juice three times.”

Creel recommended that people should protect themselves like they do – or should do – on a daily basis.

“Cover the toilet seat, wash your hands, and keep your saliva (and other fluids) to yourself,” Creel added.

Despite the heat that Texas Health Presbyterian has taken due to its handling of Duncan’s case, Creel has confidence in Children’s Medical Center’s response to the Ebola outbreak. She said employees are required to go through orientation where CDC issues and other topics are presented. They are then tested on the materials. The employees are taught how to protect themselves and their patients who are in isolation. They also learned protocols for certain viruses and how to respond to those situations. Her hospital already had a protocol in place for direct contact viruses but it is making adjustments to it in order to identify Ebola quicker while keeping everyone as safe as possible.

With all of the education and protocols in place, Creel has felt safe as a healthcare worker.

“The CDC department isn’t only consulted when an outbreak occurs. The hospital is always working towards bettering their current protocol to keep everyone safe,” Creel said. “We deal with kids who are autoimmune deficient, which means that even a common cold could threaten their health drastically. Knowing how to prevent the spread of illness is an everyday focus within the hospital. Whether it is C.Diff (Clostridium Difficile infection), chicken pox, Ebola, or MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), they’re all threatening when you think about kiddos that don’t have the immune system to fight anything off.”

A member of the CDC is also present during rounds in the hospital’s units and asks the staff for concerns that he or she can take back to his or her team.

Creel does not take care of patients the same way that nurses do but she has considered if she would be prepared to take care of a patient diagnosed with Ebola.

“Would I go in a patient’s room and provide music therapy services?” Creel asked. “If it was my choice, of course I would, just like I would do the same for a patient with HIV or C.diff. I would gown, mask, and glove up and then bleach down all my materials when I was finished. I could not imagine going through having a virus that has attracted so much negative attention without being able to express and process what’s going on with someone else. To be looked at as an infected person instead of a person who is infected.”

For Creel, there is no differentiation between the patients. Each one is just someone who needs a little music in his or her life to help them through the bad times.