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*Note to media : This article may be reprinted in your publication free of charge. If you intend to publish this article, please contact the Media Relations department at 416-314-6197.
Ten years ago, Rosemarie Davis of Grimsby was layed off from her office job. She visited her local employment centre and decided to take a business course being offered. Confirmation was slow in coming so, on an impulse, she decided to sign up for a one-year training course in nursing - a field about which she knew nothing. "It was pure luck that I ended up in that course to become a registered practical nurse. But now I know it's my field, I really enjoy my job," she says. Since graduation, she has worked in hospitals, a retirement home and for a home care agency. Currently, she works 12-hour shifts at Hamilton General Hospital with short stay cardiac patients who are waiting for tests. As a mother of a two-year old boy and four-year old girl, she schedules her work around her family responsibilities and her husband's work schedule. "What I like about my job is that I am active, which is much better for me than an office job. I also find it interesting to see how the human body heals itself," Davis says. "I try to be friendly and easy to talk to for the patients. The ones I work with are not too sick, so I have an opportunity to be caring and take time with them while doing my duties," she continued. Her commitment to nursing means that she also hopes to increase her skills over time, for instance to learn to care for newborns so that she could work in a maternity ward. Since she became a Registered Practical Nurse (RPN), which was called Registered Nursing Assistant when she graduated from Hamilton's Mohawk College, there have been changes in her profession. Now, RPNs are expected to have more skills, to know more and do more. RPNs work alongside and under the direction of Registered Nurses (RNs). Davis has seen a trend to RPNs using their skills in new situations. In her case, when Davis sees a patient who is bleeding under the skin, she can treat the condition by putting pressure on that area of the body. After taking this action, she has to keep the RN informed. In the past, she would have only informed the RN who would have taken over the treatment. Ten years after not entering the educational program she wanted, Davis remains happy about the luck that brought her to a career she loves - nursing.
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