Looking back on 50 years of being a nurse
By Roberta Cannon, RN
When I renewed my registered nurse’s license in March this year, it may have been for the last time. It’s not lost on me that I have taken care of thousands of patients and their families for more than a half century. These are incredible numbers, when I take a moment to pause and think about it.
My favorite areas of work were pediatrics, maternity and the time I spent doing hospice care. On occasion, I will run into a parent in the grocery store whose children I took care of, and they will always fill me in on how their children are doing. Many are now married and have children of their own.
If I see a family member of a former hospice patient, I feel honored that I was present for their loved one’s most personal time of their life and I was able to bring some comfort.
The Beginning of My Career
My career began in 1972 working as a graduate nurse for the late Alan Cahill, MD, a pediatrician in Orleans. I learned a great deal under his guidance and teaching and, after that, I was hired by the late Joyce Scudder, RN director of nursing at Cape Cod Hospital, to work on the medical/surgical unit on the South 2 floor.
I was a wide-eyed young nurse, a graduate of the second Cape Cod Community College Associate Degree nursing program. The majority of nurses I worked with had graduated from hospital nursing schools and worked on the floors of the hospital while getting their education. They had a great deal more experience than I did.
It simply challenged me more and I worked hard to become a team leader, responsible for patients and my team, which was composed of usually one LPN (licensed practical nurse) and a nurses’ aide. In those days, RNs were responsible for medications, IVs, nurses’ notes, care plans, reports, signing off on physician’s orders, rounds in the morning, and afternoon to update staff about patients.
I also had my own assignment of patients for baths, changing their beds and helping them to get up and ambulate. When I think about it now, I don’t know how we accomplished all that work in eight hours.
Counting IV Drips and Calculating Doses of Medications
When I first started, there were no computers to control the drips in our IVs or other medical devices to assist with care of our patients. Glass IV bottles were still being used and eventually plastic IV bags became the norm.
I counted drips and used a special slide rule to determine the number of milliliters per hour needed to meet the goal of fluid infusion ordered by physicians. To keep track, I placed gauze tape and later paper tape up the side of the IV bag penned with ink to mark off the hours at which the level of fluid should be gone.
We mixed our own medications and used handwritten mathematic formulas to calculate dosages. As I recall, there was usually one pharmacist in the hospital pharmacy available for questions and information while a staff person delivered medications to the floors.
I honed my skills for one year on the medical/surgical unit and finally went to my dream job in pediatrics. I worked with pediatricians Gerald Hazard, MD, and Katherine Leland, MD, and later Herbert Mathewson, MD, who were the only pediatricians on Cape Cod at the time. I learned so much from them, as well as the pediatric nurses who staffed the unit.
A few years later, I moved off-Cape, spending about 20 years working in various hospitals and physician offices in the Framingham/Worcester area.
I returned to the Cape in 1990, married and with two small children in tow. I was grateful to be hired at Falmouth Hospital for the night shift in pediatrics. It allowed me to be home during the day to care for my children and eventually, as they started school, I was able to do some school nursing as well. It was a good blend of two or three part time jobs, night shift, school nursing and pediatric offices. I could create a schedule around my children and be there for their sports and other activities.
When I finished working at Falmouth Hospital in 2004, I had worked with all of the pediatricians in Falmouth including Richard Adams, MD; Frank Emerling, MD; Vivien Esswein, MD; Greg Parkinson, MD; Moira Shea, MD; Barbara Lowe; Hope Brooks, MD; and Alex Heard, MD.
As my children grew and moved out of the house, I branched into other areas of nursing, including case management. While I continue to do some part time online work reviewing medical records, I also enjoy writing stories for Cape Cod Health News. It feels like I have come full circle after beginning my hospital career at Cape Cod Hospital. I never could have imagined any of this 50 years ago.
Nursing is More Than a Profession
In my view, nurses are, first and foremost, dedicated to caring for their patients, providing compassion and a listening ear. They try to help their patients navigate the ups and downs of disease, the successes and failures of medicine, the progression of life and even the end of life when it’s time for a patient to move on to their next existence, whatever that means and looks like to them.
Like other vocations, so much has changed in the nursing field and continues to evolve. It has also become a more challenging career with a pandemic in the rear-view mirror and all the social, health, emotional, and financial strains it brought on.
While many are leaving to seek less stressful positions, there continues to be something unique about being a nurse. The profession offers us the ability to move around and experience different aspects of medicine, gives the flexibility to work around schedules of family members and gives us the opportunity to offer and provide care in a way that is a special calling in life.
It has been a wonderful profession for me and given me so many gifts over the years. I count as friends many of the physicians, nurses, nurses’ aides and others I worked with over the years. Several became like family to me.
I would choose nursing all over again and encourage young women and men to consider this life of giving and caring. I’m sure they will find, as I have, that there are more rewards than one could possibly imagine.
Originally published on Cape Cod Health News, May 7, 2024
My favorite areas of work were pediatrics, maternity and the time I spent doing hospice care. On occasion, I will run into a parent in the grocery store whose children I took care of, and they will always fill me in on how their children are doing. Many are now married and have children of their own.
If I see a family member of a former hospice patient, I feel honored that I was present for their loved one’s most personal time of their life and I was able to bring some comfort.
The Beginning of My Career
My career began in 1972 working as a graduate nurse for the late Alan Cahill, MD, a pediatrician in Orleans. I learned a great deal under his guidance and teaching and, after that, I was hired by the late Joyce Scudder, RN director of nursing at Cape Cod Hospital, to work on the medical/surgical unit on the South 2 floor.
I was a wide-eyed young nurse, a graduate of the second Cape Cod Community College Associate Degree nursing program. The majority of nurses I worked with had graduated from hospital nursing schools and worked on the floors of the hospital while getting their education. They had a great deal more experience than I did.
It simply challenged me more and I worked hard to become a team leader, responsible for patients and my team, which was composed of usually one LPN (licensed practical nurse) and a nurses’ aide. In those days, RNs were responsible for medications, IVs, nurses’ notes, care plans, reports, signing off on physician’s orders, rounds in the morning, and afternoon to update staff about patients.
I also had my own assignment of patients for baths, changing their beds and helping them to get up and ambulate. When I think about it now, I don’t know how we accomplished all that work in eight hours.
Counting IV Drips and Calculating Doses of Medications
When I first started, there were no computers to control the drips in our IVs or other medical devices to assist with care of our patients. Glass IV bottles were still being used and eventually plastic IV bags became the norm.
I counted drips and used a special slide rule to determine the number of milliliters per hour needed to meet the goal of fluid infusion ordered by physicians. To keep track, I placed gauze tape and later paper tape up the side of the IV bag penned with ink to mark off the hours at which the level of fluid should be gone.
We mixed our own medications and used handwritten mathematic formulas to calculate dosages. As I recall, there was usually one pharmacist in the hospital pharmacy available for questions and information while a staff person delivered medications to the floors.
I honed my skills for one year on the medical/surgical unit and finally went to my dream job in pediatrics. I worked with pediatricians Gerald Hazard, MD, and Katherine Leland, MD, and later Herbert Mathewson, MD, who were the only pediatricians on Cape Cod at the time. I learned so much from them, as well as the pediatric nurses who staffed the unit.
A few years later, I moved off-Cape, spending about 20 years working in various hospitals and physician offices in the Framingham/Worcester area.
I returned to the Cape in 1990, married and with two small children in tow. I was grateful to be hired at Falmouth Hospital for the night shift in pediatrics. It allowed me to be home during the day to care for my children and eventually, as they started school, I was able to do some school nursing as well. It was a good blend of two or three part time jobs, night shift, school nursing and pediatric offices. I could create a schedule around my children and be there for their sports and other activities.
When I finished working at Falmouth Hospital in 2004, I had worked with all of the pediatricians in Falmouth including Richard Adams, MD; Frank Emerling, MD; Vivien Esswein, MD; Greg Parkinson, MD; Moira Shea, MD; Barbara Lowe; Hope Brooks, MD; and Alex Heard, MD.
As my children grew and moved out of the house, I branched into other areas of nursing, including case management. While I continue to do some part time online work reviewing medical records, I also enjoy writing stories for Cape Cod Health News. It feels like I have come full circle after beginning my hospital career at Cape Cod Hospital. I never could have imagined any of this 50 years ago.
Nursing is More Than a Profession
In my view, nurses are, first and foremost, dedicated to caring for their patients, providing compassion and a listening ear. They try to help their patients navigate the ups and downs of disease, the successes and failures of medicine, the progression of life and even the end of life when it’s time for a patient to move on to their next existence, whatever that means and looks like to them.
Like other vocations, so much has changed in the nursing field and continues to evolve. It has also become a more challenging career with a pandemic in the rear-view mirror and all the social, health, emotional, and financial strains it brought on.
While many are leaving to seek less stressful positions, there continues to be something unique about being a nurse. The profession offers us the ability to move around and experience different aspects of medicine, gives the flexibility to work around schedules of family members and gives us the opportunity to offer and provide care in a way that is a special calling in life.
It has been a wonderful profession for me and given me so many gifts over the years. I count as friends many of the physicians, nurses, nurses’ aides and others I worked with over the years. Several became like family to me.
I would choose nursing all over again and encourage young women and men to consider this life of giving and caring. I’m sure they will find, as I have, that there are more rewards than one could possibly imagine.
Originally published on Cape Cod Health News, May 7, 2024