Have you ever been anywhere where you hear an angelic voice singing when least expected?
Meet Jared Axen, a registered nurse at the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital.
Jared walks through the halls of this hospital, going from one patient to the other, to take care of them and their needs.
“I started singing before I went into nursing, and singing is just something I naturally do, whether I’m walking on the floors or anything, I don’t really think about it,” Jared told CBS Los Angeles.
But his patients heard him and began to ask about the one singing in the hallways.
Eventually, they found out it was their nurse, Jared. It was then that they’d request for him to sing to them.
Before he became a nurse, Jared received formal vocal training since he was 15.
He double-majored vocal performance in music, and nursing at the College of the Canyons in Santa, Clarita. And he also received vocal training from Dr. Kimberlyn Jones at The Master’s University.
With music running in his blood, he had a lot of support for his musical ambition from his parents.
He was sponsored by a local youth art outreach company called Young At Art to perform on radio and TV. And, at 16 years old, he made his international debut, as part of the The Welsh Choir of Southern California, when they toured Wales and London. He also trained under world-renowned opera composer Daniel Catán.
When he graduated, he made the career shift to work as a registered nurse because he “wanted to give something back to my community.”
Well, Jared also realized that he could combine his two passions – music and nursing – in the hospital. Soon, he was spending time in his patient’s room, singing to them. Most of his avid listeners are the seniors and the terminally ill.
“It’s easy to turn on a TV and walk away. But it’s personal when you can sit down and talk to them, sing with them, [tell them jokes], and do something to keep their mind off the pain while the medication’s kicking in,” Jared explained his motivation for singing in hospitals.
They usually request classic songs, especially songs by Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole.
One of these patients is Norma Laskoske.
She is Jared’s patients and Jared sits by her bed side and sings the 1940’s jazz song, “Time After Time”.
When Los Angeles Times talked to Norma, she said, “He has a beautiful soothing voice. When he looks at you, you know he’s singing to you.”
Norma does her best to sing along to Jared while he sings to her. At the end, she wipes away her tears.
Jared says that he sings to his patients to “make them feel a little good about their day.”
And it has worked because more patients have requested for less pain medication because they experience less pain. Some have requested for less mood stabilizers because they are in higher spirits.
“They may not be happy about their situation but it seems a little easier to handle, a little easier to manage,” he told Los Angeles Times.
Sue Walroth, Jared’s supervisor, agrees with Jared’s singing methods.
When Jared sings to them, she says, patients are more likely to feel “that someone cares about them … and the emotion and the feelings really come out when he sings.”
His supervisor and patients aren’t the only who appreciate his efforts.
He was also awarded the “Hospital Hero” award in Southern California. This award recognizes the “outstanding commitments and achievements of health care professionals.”
Since word spread out about his musical career at the hospital, Jared has been interviewed and featured in radio and TV talk shows. And he’s even signed a two year record deal with RadicLea Records.
Do you want to hear Jared’s beautiful soothing voice that puts his patients in high spirits? Watch the video below.
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