Tracy Gordon Fox sends this update on her status. (Any other alums who want to report to their friends are more than welcome.)
I have started a new job as a certified nursing assistant at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center on a medical-surgical floor that includes neurology, orthopedics and general surgery.
It is a fast-paced, physically challenging job that is all hands-on care for patients, many who have just come up from surgery or the emergency department. The job complements my classes so well because I see first hand many of the things I am learning about. It is also a floor where nursing students are assigned to learn, and my nursing advisors are very happy that I am working on this particular floor.
I work two to three days a week, and I am per diem, which allows me flexibility in my schedule and does not interfere with classes. Since it is a teaching hospital, the nurses have been great about helping me build skills I will need for nursing. As part of my job, I take vital signs, do diabetic finger sticks, empty surgical drains, and help patients with activities of daily living.
The feedback I have received from patients and their families is almost better than the paycheck, in that they are grateful for kind and professional care. Doctors, nurses and physical therapists treat nursing assistants as part of the patient-care team and are respectful of us. School is my learning environment, but St. Francis will clearly be my training ground.
I am still hoping to one day work ER/trauma, and this job is good basic experience toward that goal.
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Beautiful, Tracy. Your update is an inspiration to everyone, and you have a book within you, too.
Congratulations! It’s good to hear of success in such a career change.
Has anyone ever asked about your background as a reporter?
Go, Tracy, go.
Congratulations, what a great career for you, nurses always have a job!!!
Marge, once in awhile, I’ll run into people from my past life, including state troopers. The funniest was a former state police trooper who was up on my floor as a volunteer minister! He is doing some training to be a minister, and we both looked at each other’s work badges and said,”What are you doing here?”
Fortunately, I have built close ties with the folks at St. Francis, so while they know I used to work for the newspaper, they also know I am extremely loyal to the hospital…I am also a corporator, which is a volunteer position, in which I help the hospital in the community in other ways, such as fundraisers, and kind of talking up the hospital. It is easy to do, because I really believe in St. Francis Hospital’s care.
Otherwise, I don’t talk much about my past career, unless someone asks what I did before….And the response I usually get from patients or nurses is, “That’s quite a career change!”
Tracy, you are among those whose Courant experience dates back far enough to remember 1993, when I spent an impromptu 10 days in the hospital. I will NEVER forget the comfort and reassurance that more than one nurse provided during my painful recovery. When I was up and walking again, weeks later, I went back and made it a point to thank all of them that I could find. Good medical care is not all about the doctors, not at all.
Trace,
I am working part-time at a clothing store in Westbrook and I recently waited on your old friend State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance. I introduced myself and told him I used to work with you. He got a big old grin and said, “She was something!”
I think he meant that in a nice way!
lee
I’m married to a CNA who took up the career nine years ago. I have a ton of respect for what they do. So, good luck Tracy!
Hey Tracy,
Isn’t it nice, for once, to be proud of where you work and not just the work you do? I left the business in 2005 and when I returned to writing three years later, it was for a hospice organization. What a difference!
I’m so glad I found your post. It’s been way too long.
Lisa Goldberg
Yes Lisa! That is so true. I leave work so exhausted, but so satisfied after every shift in that I have helped people. They are so grateful, as are their families for the care we give at our hospital. Not only that, there is life in the building, which is always bustling with doctors, nurses, other medical staff, so much different from the dead building I left when I left the Courant. I wish all former journalists could find a new passion and realize there is life after the death of newspapers as we know it…Please google my name and New York Times and Nursing to see the story of how I got here…I wrote it for generations for the now-defunct CT section. It was from the heart, and explains my metamorphasis!
Working for a hospice organization as you do is what our kind would call a Mitzvah. Best of Luck in your new job. I know with your caring and compassion and writing skills, you will be an amazing asset to them! Nice to hear from you! Tracy
I realize it may not be fashionable to say so in this forum, but I remain proud of the place I work and the work we do.
I wish we had all those good people we’ve lost. We were better with them.
But I’m still proud of the work we do each day.
As you should be.