Spotlight on: Jessica Porter, RN, BS, CNOR, Nurse Manager, Noyes Outpatient Surgery Center

Jessica Porter’s nursing career has centered on surgery. ”My favorite part of nursing school was anatomy and physiology,” she said. “I began my career as a floor nurse on a surgical floor and I’ve worked in the OR, too. I love that surgery is about fixing problems. Patients come to us with something broken or not working well. It’s very fulfilling when we can fix it and send them home feeling better.”

Porter earned her associate degree from Alfred State and her bachelor's degree from St. John Fisher. Her career has taken her to Highland and the Sawgrass Surgery Center, but for the past year and a half she has been the nurse manager for Noyes Outpatient Surgery Center in Geneseo.

“It’s truly a great community where I can help care for friends and neighbors,” she said. “Our staff is all local. Patients like that they know and trust the people caring for them.”

During the height of the COVID pandemic, the surgery center was closed for a month and a half. Staff were cross-trained for Noyes Memorial Hospital ICU and Med/Surg units during that time but on April 30 surgeries were resumed with new guidelines. “We are embracing our new normal with proper procedures and social distancing,” said Porter. “We ramped back up slowly but now we still accommodate almost the same amount of patients as before the closure.”

Porter calls nursing a great career. “It’s the right career for people who genuinely want to help others,” she said. “We see patients at some of the worst times of their lives. They are scared, but with skill and compassion, we can help them through it.”

Porter likes that nurses at Noyes also help each other to be the best they can be. “I like to support my colleagues and help them work toward their goals,” she said. “Seeing others do well in their job makes me feel good, too.”

Although she is a nurse manager, Porter also stays hands-on with clinical care. She is appreciative of the Noyes affiliation with the University of Rochester Medical Center. “It is wonderful for us to be able to share resources with the University,” she said. ““Doctors from many different specialties come to Geneseo to perform surgeries at our center. It means a lot for patients to be able to have access to that kind of care right in their community.”