When asked what she did for a living before she became a registered nurse, Christin Inman said she was a stay-at-home mom.
“Actually,” she said. “It’s a lot more than that.”
Inman was a hair stylist, owned Little Chicago’s Hotdogs in Hendersonville, owned one of Nashville’s first food trucks, and sold real estate — all before she became a nursing assistant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2013.
Why the shift to the medical field?
“I’ve always had a servant’s heart,” she said. “I was always going to be a nurse and knew it from the time I was a little girl. I lived my life backwards — got married, had three kids, did other things, and when I was finally able to buckle down and do nursing, I never looked back.”
Inman graduated from Nashville State nursing school in May 2023, became a medical-surgical nurse at Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital (VWCH) two months later and — after less than a year on the job — won the 2024 Patient and Family Choice Award for VWCH.
She is one of six employees chosen this year to receive a Patient and Family Choice Award.
Nominations are submitted by patients and families. The award honors employees from across Vanderbilt Health who act with compassion and excellence to provide an exceptional experience for patients and their families. This year, Vanderbilt’s five patient and family advisory councils bestowed awards to six individuals from Vanderbilt University Hospital, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, Vanderbilt Adult Ambulatory Clinics, Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital and Vanderbilt Tullahoma-Harton Hospital.
“Christin was not only knowledgeable, she was compassionate,” wrote one nominator. “I had a rough, stressful surgery day, and she made my night a better one. Even though she had a busy assignment, she took the time for me, did a thorough assessment and made sure my needs were met. She did not rush through her time in my room, and I felt well cared for.”
Inman was proud to be recognized, as it’s a good sign her patients feel the level of care she works to provide.
“I want people to feel like they can trust me; that I’m here to advocate for them and do what’s best for them 100% of the time,” she said. “Health care is about the people we serve, and lot of times they do not feel heard. I want to know their story. The time restraints in nursing can be pretty daunting, but I take my time with every single patient and want to hear what brought them here and what they want to take out of their experience.”
Inman, who works the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, was surprised that a night shift nurse won an award voted on by patients.
“I tell my patients up front, ‘you’re going to see me a lot, and you’re going to hate me by the time the shift is over,’” she said with a laugh.
Though Inman is more of an early-to-bed, early-to-rise kind of woman, Jeanne Yeatman, MBA, BSN, CMTE, EMT, chief nursing officer at VWCH, said she “exudes the same joy regardless of what time of day it is.”
“It’s not helpful to be grouchy,” Inman said. “It’s not even helpful to nursing staff morale. It just drags everybody down. I don’t complain; I just try to pep people up.”
Once she’s through caring for others, she immediately cares for herself. Six days a week, Inman is at the gym at 8 a.m.
“Everyone at work knows that if they’re getting a report from me, they better be on time because I’m going to be pacing the floor to get out by 7:15 a.m. so I can make it to the gym by 8 a.m.,” she said. “They all know my routine and, believe me, they don’t interrupt it. It’s no different from someone who works out after the day shift to decompress and relieve stress. I let everything go from the night before so I can rest and do it all over again.”
Inman said the honor felt “strange,” as she’s not a fan of the spotlight.
“I prayed about it and realized maybe this award was God saying, ‘I’m recognizing you because you live your life the way I’ve designed for you,’” she said. “Maybe it was a nudge from God telling me, ‘I see you. I see what you do.’”
