Hospital Profiles Newtown Nurse During National Nurses Week

Marcie Carroll, RN, wouldn’t trade her nursing career for anything. The Newtown mother of two sons, ages 2 and 3, loves children and has worked hard at a career that allows her to raise her boys and also help sick children get well.

A flexible schedule is what attracts many professionals to the field of nursing. Marcie Carroll is just one of the more than 600 nurses being honored by Danbury Hospital during National Nurses Week, May 6-12. The week honors the 2.6 million nurses around the country who make a difference in the lives and care of patients. The week began on Florence Nightingale’s birthday, May 6, and centered on the theme “Nurses are the True Spirit of Caring.”

As a registered nurse in Danbury Hospital’s Department of Pediatrics, Ms Carroll can choose a work schedule to meet her pressing demands as a wife and mother.

“I work part-time,” she says, “two 12-hour shifts a week. I get to pick and choose my schedule and work as much or as little as I’d like.”

She appreciates the flexibility a nursing career offers. “A lot of people outside the field nursing tell me how lucky I am to be able to set my own schedule,” she said. “It’s a career that works in my life.”

This year’s celebration is especially significant, given the national nurse staffing crisis. Last year, the American Nurses Association (ANA) called nurse staffing a public health crisis, with not enough nurses to fill the growing need of patients, especially the elderly and aging baby-boomers.

Danbury Hospital is trying to raise awareness that the nursing profession has evolved and grown from its traditional role in the past few decades.

“Many young women today don’t realize what nursing is all about,” Ms Carroll said. “They have the stereotype in their head of what a nurse is. They also see it as a job that doesn’t command lot of respect or pay very well — but it does both.”

It is the respect and rewards that have kept Ms Carroll in nursing for almost 20 years. “Nursing means a lot of different things. Our role is so important to those who you take care of – you’re the liaison between patient and doctor and rest of the hospital,” she said.

“Many patients know so little about their bodies and medicine,” she added. “It’s rewarding to educate someone about their illness and how they’re going to deal with it. You can make hospitalization a better experience for them, and when you do, there’s such high job satisfaction.”

Nursing also helps one develop both professionally and personally, she added.

“We’re constantly asked to put ourselves in another person’s shoes,” Ms Carroll said. “When we do that, and add good communication, nothing could be more rewarding.”

“I may be exhausted when I get home, but I’m happy to go back the next time. That,” says Ms Carroll, “is what makes a good job.”