35 years at PMH
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| After 35 years as a staff nurse at Perry Memorial Hospital, Sara Phillips has decided it's time to retire, though the idea of leaving her patients and colleagues was a bittersweet decision. (BCR photo/Terri Simon) |
PRINCETON — It was 35 years ago, when a young Sara Phillips saw her own reflection in the window of Room 243 at Perry Memorial Hospital in Princeton.
“Walking past in my uniform, tall, straight and so proud of myself — white uniform, crisp new cap, white stockings and standard model nursing shoes. I remember that like it was yesterday,” Phillips said.
That “yesterday” was in 1973, when Phillips was 20 years old. Having just graduated from the Illinois Valley Community College’s nursing program, Phillips walked onto the nursing floor at Perry Memorial with an associate’s degree in nursing ... She remembers being nervous, scared and very intimidated. She also admits that she never planned to spend her entire career there, much less retire from the city-owned hospital after 35 years.
“I knew I wouldn’t be here 35 years later,” Phillips said on her last day of work before retiring. “I knew I would never stay. When you’re young, you’re invincible. You never think you’re going to get older.”
But stay she did ... And on her last day of work on Nov. 23, Phillips saw herself looking backward instead of thinking about what her retirement might hold. With tears in her eyes, she was remembering the countless times she had walked the halls of Perry Memorial Hospital; thinking of the thousands of patients she had nursed in her career; recalling many of her colleagues along the way; and talking about all the ways nursing and the hospital had changed in the past 35 years.
“Uniforms have changed,” Phillips said. We no longer wear caps. When I started (in 1973), the dress code was just beginning to let us wear pants. Now, it seems the sky is the limit. All colors are accepted.
“The hospital was much larger at that time,” she continued. “Nearly all of the rooms had two beds, and there were a few times when there were so many patients that they were in beds in the hallways.
“Dr. Poppins and Dr. Bonucci did many surgeries in those years. A patient with gallbladder disease stayed for one week to 10 days. Now they usually stay overnight,” she said, adding that the hospital has gone from an entire floor of surgical patients to now mingling those patients with the non-surgical ones.
Phillips said advances in all phases of medicine has changed nursing and healthcare, in general.
“I remember a patient in traction for a broken leg. We used to keep patients in balanced skeletal traction for weeks until the leg healed,” Phillips said. “(That’s) no longer necessary, as they can be surgically repaired.”
Through the years, Phillips recalled many firsts ... Like the first computer installed on the hospital floor for the nurses to record their reports, the first CT scans at Perry Memorial, the first time she was able to fax an EKG to a doctor to diagnose a heart attack, without having that doctor actually examine the patient ... the list went on and on.
Throughout Phillips’ 35 years as a staff nurse at PMH, she said she really never had a desire to be in management.
“The perks of this job is getting out there seeing people and your patients,” she said.
Phillips said her nursing job gave her the opportunity to become a lifelong learner in her profession. Mentioning her supervisors, her peers, the doctors, her mentors like Lucille White, and her colleagues/friends like Bev Stegman.
“She was an absolutely wonderful nurse,” said Stegman of Phillips. “She was a great colleague. It was truly a please to work with her. She guided me and helped mold me. It was so wonderful to have somebody like her to look up to and mentor me. I can’t say enough good things about her.”
Phillips said it has been the patients who have taught her the most.
“The patients help you get through it,” she said, adding that sometimes through death, you learn a lot about life. “You just do your best.”
So what kind of advice would a 35-year veteran of the nursing profession offer others who might be contemplating a career as a registered nurse?
“It takes a different kind of person to do it. Stick with it. Enjoy it,” she said.
While Phillips will still continue with her part-time job (one day a week or less) at St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, she said she’s anxious to be a bit more spontaneous.
“When my friends say go, I’m going to go,” she said, adding she wants to do be able to cook Sunday dinner for her family, go to Peoria Chiefs’ games, read, watch movies and just plain live, now that she’s retired.
And so it was at 11:08 p.m. Nov. 23, Sara Phillips officially retired her nurse’s cap from Perry Memorial Hospital. She did it with excitement of what was yet to come, but as she made her way down that hallway one last time, she couldn’t help but catch her reflection in that glass ... and tears filled her eyes. Sometimes retirement can be a bittersweet experience.
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