Q: How did you get into nursing?

We moved from Connecticut in 1977 and about a year later my daughter told me she was going back to school to obtain an RN. I missed the classroom so I said that I’d take some science classes with her. I’d never studied much science and I became enamored with the nursing program and decided to go through it with my daughter. I was the oldest person in the class but the program was wonderful. I had no trouble with the theory or learning the necessary information, but the actual implementation of the various procedures was challenging. It was hard to do those mechanical things that I’d not done before like putting in an NG tube or applying a dressing. You might say learning the tools of my trade as opposed to the theory. That was all new to me.

Q: What do you like most about what you do?

I like working with a team as opposed to being a solo worker. Nursing and teaching are similar in many respects. There is a whole group of people and we support one another in both disciplines. We have PT, OT, speech therapist, special recreational therapist, a podiatrist, and physicians on our team at the Rehabilitation Institute.

When I worked as a teacher, we had a supportive faculty, the whole English department, and then we taught individuals in the classroom. Here, we have a team of therapists and we bring what we have to the individual patient. It’s not unlike working with students.

Educating each patient and their family members or caregivers is of prime importance in rehabilitation nursing. The skills the caretaker learns while the patient is in rehab enable the caretaker to provide better care for loved ones at home.

Without these skills, it could not be done. I try to give my best to the patient and their family and help them be successful in caring for the patient when they get home.

My patients and their families are in many ways like the students of earlier years.

Q: What are the challenges you meet today?

Trying to be effective with the very short hospital stays allowed by insurance and Medicare today.

When I started working here, the average stay was three months and some were here as long as one year. Now, incredibly, the average stay is 10 days. We have a 1-to-6 ratio acuity system utilizing licensed nurses.

Q: Are there any special patients that you remember?

Yes, when I first started working in rehab, there was a young girl who came to us in a coma. She’d been in an automobile accident.

As she slowly came out of her coma, she needed some strong mothering and we became special friends. She now lives independently with companion care, but she still comes in to visit us.

Q: Have you ever thought of retiring?

Not yet, it works perfectly for me. As long as I stay healthy, I’ll plan to work.

My daughter, who is a therapist, tells me I’ve taken the experiences of my life and used them wisely. I want to continue to do this.

Q: What are your outside interests?

I work out two to three times a week at a gym to keep up my strength. There’s some lifting in my work. There is also a skill that takes some strength, to transfer a patient without hurting them or myself.

I also love to grow things. Instead of a lawn in my back yard, I have flowering trees, orange trees, lemon trees, a fig tree, a persimmon tree, and a tangerine tree. I really enjoy my garden of trees.

Incidentally, the daughter that I went to nursing school with recently became a rehab nurse at the Rehabilitation Institute at Santa Barbara. We started together and will end our nursing career the same way.