There are lots of memories surfacing these days because on June 14, 2024, it will be 50 years since my nursing class graduated. We graduated from Public General Hospital School of Nursing in Chatham, ON and from St. Clair College (Windsor, ON) Thames Campus. We started our classes at a hosptial school of nursing and ended them at a community college. Nursing schools transitioned from hospitals into Community Colleges in 1973. Two things have changed over the years. It now takes a 4-year University degree to become a Registered Nurse (I was in a two year program) and more males are entering the field of nursing (I had 2 males in my class).
This photo shows some of my name tags: Miss A. Batterink (nursing school) A. Westra (Kingston Penitentiary) and my last one, Annette (Fraser Health Authority for my positions at Surrey Memorial Hospital and Newton Home Health, BC). They also tell a story of how differently nurses were addressed through the years.
My Transitioning Career (skip this part if it’s too boring)
Over 44 years, I worked in 12 different institutions in 4 provinces.
Hamilton General Hospital ON– Neurosurgery and Burn Unit -July 1974-June 1978*
Kyle-White Bear Union Hospital SK– general nursing -Sept. 1975- Oct. 1975* (more about that later).
Sarnia General Hospital ON -casual float nurse -(July 1978 – May 1979)
St. Jospeh’s Hospital, London ON- urology unit -June 1979 – July 1980
Kingston General Hospital ON – casual part-time float -Oct. 1980 – Sept. 1981
Kingston Penitentiary ON -Operating Room- Feb. 1984 – Aug. 1986
Hotel Dieu Hospital, Kingston ON – Surgical Intensive Care- Sept. 1984- Aug. 1986
Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital ON– Medical Floor and ICU/CCU – Sept 1986 – April 2008
Foothills Hospital, Calgary AB- Respiratory Medicine and Thoracic Surgery – part-time- May 2008 – Feb. 2009
Bow Crest Nursing Home-Calgary AB – part-time evening nurse dementia unit – March 2009 – April 2010.
Surrey Memorial Hospital BC– casual position (medical floors) -May 2010 – April 2013
Newton Home Health, Fraser Health Authority BC – April 2013- Sept. 2018
“As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the heart, mind, soul and body of our patients, their families and ourselves. ~ Maya Angelou
When I had my interview for my first nursing job, I said that I wanted to work in an area where I would get to know patients and their families. My first assignment was on a neurosurgical unit at Hamilton General Hospital. It was an intense place to work. Patients included those with brain tumours, new paraplegics & quadriplegics and semi-comatose patients with little hope of recovery. There were also frequent deaths. Giving emotional support in so many diverse situations stretched me in ways I had never anticipated. At the end of a year, I was ready for a change. It was an idea that my head nurse celebrated as she felt all new nurses should explore nursing.
I decided on a big transition and applied for a position I read about in The Canadian Nurse. However, between the time I was accepted for the position and the time I arrived in *Kyle SK, there was a change in doctors. The present doctor had few privileges. I felt bored and isolated and when I was offered another position at the hospital I had just left, I returned to Hamilton General Hospital, this time to the Burn Unit.*
The Burn Unit was also an intense place to work, with sometimes heart-breaking situations. Sometimes multiple members of the same family were admitted and not all of them survived. One of those people was Ronnie. He was 17 years old. His cousin’s clothes caught on fire while working in a garage. Ronnie used a fire blanket to put out his cousin’s burning clothes. There wasn’t a second blanket for when Ronnie’s clothes caught fire, too. He was severely burned. He survived for several weeks. Ronnie was a Christian and he knew I was, too. One quiet night, near the end of Ronnie’s life, I sat at his bedside for a few minutes. Ronnie said, “Annette, it’s ok if I die. I’m ready and my cousin isn’t”. I was 23 years old at that time, and Ronnie’s words have always stayed with me.
Two things changed for the better soon after I started working at Hamilton General. One was switching from glass IV bottles to IV bags. No more crashing bottles on the floor as patients stumbled out of the bathroom (We often had patients with delerium tremens on our unit). The other good change was no longer using mercury thermometers: rectal and oral ones. We spent too much time chasing those little balls of mercury around on the floor when a thermometer broke.
“Transitions are a time for reflection and a time for looking forward” ~ Roy Cooper
During these years (except for my time in SK, of course), I was living at home with my parents. It was a blessing to be so well cared for while I was transitioning into my new profession. After four years at home, I was ready to move on, but not as big a change as my venture to SK. I moved into my first apartment in Sarnia,ON. A city where I had gone to elementary school and high school. It was also close enough to spend time at my favourite lake, Lake Huron.
I worked at Sarnia General Hospital. I had a casual float position. I smiled when I had opportunities to work in the area where the delivery rooms had been when I was born. To better position myself for a full-time job, I took an in-house Critical Care course on my own time, giving up opportunites to earn money when I went to classes. They promised that we would get full-time positions on completion of the course work. That promise was broken—and I moved on again.
Transition 2
My next stop was a full-time position on a 44-bed urology unit in St. Jospeh’s Hospital in London, ON. I learned skills that would be useful later and enjoyed working with the young nurses who were my colleagues. I left when I got married and moved to Kingston, ON.
Transition 3
I had more transitions as I adjusted to life in Kingston, to life as a wife and soon to life as a mother. During my years in Kingston, I first worked as a casual float nurse at Kingston General Hospital. KGH is a teaching hospital and I learned “lots” and enjoyed the many new situations I was exposed to. I was blessed to have supportive staff help me in each new situation.
My children were born 18 months apart, so these were busy years. My first “back to work” position after my second child was born, was in the Operating Room at Kingston Penitentiary: every week on Wednesday. Working in “the Pen” was a unique experience. Getting to know our inmate orderlies and reading the files of those who came for surgery helped me recognize that every one of us “has a story”. After a few months, I also started working a casual position at Hotel Dieu Hospital in Kingston in their Surgical Intensive Care unit.
I had a huge transition in 1986 —a separation in my marriage – and a move to Strathroy, ON which is a 5-hour drive from Kingston, but where my sister and her family lived. (My husband joined the children and me 6 months later)
I worked at Surrey Memorial Hospital for 22 years in various part-time and full-time positions, in the Medical Unit and in ICU/CCU. It was my first time working 12-hour shifts. Strathroy was a good community to be part of and looking after “the locals” was a positive addition to the job.
Let us never consider ourselves finished nurses. We must be learning all our lives. ~ Florence Nightingale.
All through these years, continuing education was a must. I learned how to do blood sugar testing (glucometers), how to do chest assessments to listen for abnormalities using a stethoscope. I learned how to stick needles into veins to start intravenous therapy and how to do sterile dressing changes for PICC lines (Peripherally inserted central line) and for central lines. There were many specialty skills I needed to use when working in ICU/CCU.
We seldom wore gloves in the early 70s. With the passing years, gloves were being worn more and more often. And soon nurses were using lots of hand sanitizer.
Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomfort. ~ Arnold Bennett
During my career, I found it stressful when changes were made to the way we had to deliver care. When I initially worked in nursing, we followed the team nursing model of care. A team worked together to get the care done for a certain group of patients. In my last hospital job, we did total patient care. A nurse was responsible for all the care for his/her patients. I found that in Team Nursing I had to keep track of details for too many patients. In Total Patient Care it was sometimes hard to find the help I needed when I needed it.
My favourite way of doing patient care was a hybrid of team nursing and total patient care. We had some variations of that while I worked in Strathroy. I liked to know which patients I was responsible for, but I also liked to have another nurse or nurses on my team that knew we would work together when needed. I knew who was assigned to cover me for my breaks. Another thing we did on the medical unit was “rounds”. All available nurses going through the unit together getting patients up or back to bed. I enjoyed seeing the other patients I wasn’t assigned to.
John C. Maxwell said that “Teamwork makes the dream work”.
There were a big personal changes while in Strathroy
During these years, I divorced and adjusted to “single-again” me. My children completed post-secondary education, and both moved to Calgary, AB. I found out that Alberta had great part-time rotations and even better benefits. I decided it was time for a change. After spending 22 years working with many of the same people, I missed them. But I was ready to move forward into what God had next for me. I am thankful for any connections I still have.
Forgive yourself; you are not perfect. Show yourself grace; you are still learning. Show yourself patience; you are on a journey. ~ Shannon Yvette Tanner
When you first start nursing you are a “novice nurse” but as you gain experience, you work towards being an “expert nurse”. During my many job changes through the years, I was able to adjust out of the novice stage within a reasonable time frame, and start to feel comfortable.
When I moved to Calgary, I worked 8-hour shifts on a Respiratory Medicine and Thoracic Surgery unit at Foothills Hospital. Their nursing model was a bit different than I had previously experienced; it was the first time I worked with care aides.
I had often worked on medical units, so respiratory medicine wasn’t too big a challenge for me. However, this was my first time working with thoracic surgery patients and the unique situations that this involved : chest tube removals, strict pain control and post-op care.
Another challenge for me was that the staff turnover on the unit was great. This affected me and all the new nurses; some were novice nurses. I could answer some of the novice nurses’ questions but didn’t always get my own questions answered. After 9 months, I realized I “wasn’t having fun”. So, I resigned. Years before my father had told me that if I wasn’t having fun, I should find something else to do. I could, so I did!
I took a month of vacation, traveling to visit family and friends. When I got back to Calgary, I had a message on my answering machine to set up an interview for another job. Through all the challenges and changes, I was blessed that every time I needed or wanted another job, I was able to find one.
They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
Soon I was working in a part-time evening position on a 77-bed dementia unit at Bow Crest Nursing Home. I enjoyed most aspects of that job, but especially tucking people into bed at night. One sweet memory is about a resident named Betty. Betty had quite advanced dementia but was still able to peddle herself around the unit in her wheelchair. There was a time when I didn’t see her for a few days because I was assigned to other patients, but Betty found me. She peddled up to me and said” If I have a birthday party, will you come?” She didn’t know my name, she probably didn’t know when her birthday was, but she considered me her friend. Such an honour.
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end” ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
My children had both moved away from Calgary and I had family and friends in BC, so, without a job or a place to live, I moved there. I lived with friends initially, but soon had a job and my own apartment.
I worked 12 hour shifts at Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH), floating to various medical units. Initially I worked day and nights shifts, but eventually was able to get enough work by only working days shifts. At SMH, the physiotherapists were more involved with the patients’ care. The multidisciplinary model of care was new for me – the added input to my patients’ care was appreciated.
One skill I learned at SMH was how to do peritoneal dialysis- a treatment for kidney failure that uses the lining of your abdomen, or belly, to filter the blood inside of your body. It can be done at home or another appropriate place by the person needing treatment.
To All Good Things There Comes an End
My final job change in my career was when I started working at Newton Home Health (NHH). During my interview for my first job, I had said that I wanted a position where I could get to know patients and their families. Over the years, hospital nursing became too busy for me to feel that connection. So even though, I didn’t too often see the same clients again and again, I enjoyed once again having an opportunity for better one-on-one communication with the people I cared for.
There was a bigger learning curve than I had anticipated in doing home health nursing. The efforts towards the adjustment were worth it. Because NHH and SMH were both part of the Fraser Health Authority, my seniority moved with me. This made it easier for me to pick the shifts I wanted to work; a surprise that was a blessing.
In the fall of 2017, I had surgery with some complications. For several months afterwards, I tried to get “back into the groove”. I worked some shifts, but thinking about needing to work the next day became stressful. Eventually I had to admit to myself that trying to get back to work was sabotaging my recovery. I resigned in the fall of 2018.
Life has a different rhythm now. I like being able to set my own pace and get involved with what I want to be involved in. I do some volunteer work; I am a member of a ladies’ group at church and I am finding time for my hobbies. I am thankful for the years that I could spend time with patients and their families. Their stories have added to the richness of my story.
My Tapestry Blog 