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Despite the nation's widely publicized nursing shortage, Ellis-Hospital has made great strides in recruiting and retaining registered nurses. In fact, Ellis' nurse vacancy rate has gone from a high of 39 % in 2001 to 13% today. By September, hospital officials predict the vacancy rate will be reduced to 8%, exactly where they want to be in terms of the number of nurses they have on staff.
"We always want to have some flex for the peaks and valleys in our patient census," Ellis Hospital Chief Operating Officer Dianne Shugrue, R.N. explained. Having appropriate R.N. staffing resources is critical to Ellis' future growth."
| Name: |
Tom Paddock, R.N. |
| Began Working at Ellis: |
Dec.1997 |
| Family: |
wife, Lisa; son, Donnan |
For the last three years, a former cardiac patient has made it a weekly ritual to deliver pizza to the intensive care unit staff at Ellis Hospital. It's his way of saying thanks for the great care he received at Ellis.
 "If he knows I'm working, he'll bring me a loaf of bread, too," says Tom Paddock, R.N. about the generosity and appreciativeness of this former patient. "We often have patients who come back and visit, especially around holiday times. It's one of the best parts of my job."
Tom began working at Ellis in 1997, shortly after graduating from nursing school. Previously, he worked as a paramedic. He says he has no regrets about his career choice or about the hospital he chose to work at.
"One of the biggest advantages about working at Ellis is that is has all the amenities and technology of a big city hospital, but it is still a homey, close-knit community hospital."
Tom, who serves on the hospital's planning committee for the upcoming ICU expansion project, says he's looking forward to working in the new facility.
"It will be set-up the way we [the nurses] want it," Tom explains. "Some of the biggest improvements will be that the new ICU will be right across from the OR, so we can get patients there more quickly, and the nurses will have a break room and individual lockers."
No doubt, Tom and his colleagues will continue to enjoy pizza and other acts of kindness from former patients when the ICU moves to its new location in the hospital's A-wing. A fact that prompts Tom to add, "I feel very fortunate to do what I do."
| Name: |
Anne Jones, R.N. |
| Began Working at Ellis: |
Sept. 1977 |
| Family: |
husband, Thomas; children, Eric and Amy |
After 27 years on the job as a registered nurse at Ellis Hospital, Anne Jones says it's the flexibility that has kept her going, the camaraderie of her colleagues that has kept her smiling, and the impact she makes in the lives of her patients that has made her chosen profession so worthwhile.
 In each stage of her career, Anne has been able to adjust her hours to accommodate changing priorities. Her oscillating schedule has essentially been a road map of her life. Anne began working full-time on the evening shift when she was just out of nursing school. For a young person, it was the "perfect shift," according to Anne, allowing her to go out with friends after work. She got married and moved to days and in 1983, after giving birth to her son, Eric, she was able to work part-time. In 1986, after the birth of her daughter, Amy, Anne worked per diem for a year or two, and then it was back to evenings. Today, Anne can be found three days a week on Ellis' A-3 unit, but she expects to pick-up more time now that her youngest child is a senior in high school. "One of the great things about being a nurse is that you can work when you want to," Anne explained.
In addition to the flexibility, Anne says her co-workers at Ellis are not only friends, but a "part of my family" When asked about her most memorable experience, Anne responds immediately, pride detectable in her voice, "It is definitely my Brian."
Brian is a Rotterdam man in his forties who, last summer, came to Ellis after suffering an injury that would eventually cost him both of his legs from the knees down.
As a patient, he was my pride and joy," Anne remembers. "I loved taking care of him. It was emotional and physical work, but it was really rewarding to see him make progress and not lose hope."
Anne and Brian still keep in touch, almost a year after he was discharged from Room 317. "He'll pop in to see me whenever he goes to Sunnyview [Rehabilitation Hospital]," Anne says. Then she pauses, reflecting on her career as a nurse, "It's just a part of my life, who I am."
| Name: |
Kathy Middleton, R.N. |
| Began Working at Ellis: |
July 2003 |
| Family: |
husband, Cecil; children, Akil and Asha |
At 41, Kathy Middleton is one year into her second career and she loves it! The Navy veteran, wife and mother of two always wanted to be a nurse, perhaps because that was her mother's profession. However, after high school, she joined the Navy and earned a degree as a dental hygienist.
 Years passed, but one thought remained in the back of her mind — her desire to become a nurse. In May 2003, Kathy's aspirations were realized when she graduated from Ellis Hospital's School of Nursing. Two months later, she began working full-time as an operating room (OR) nurse at Ellis Hospital.
"It's been wonderful. I have no regrets," Kathy beams. "Most days I leave feeling like I've made a difference."
As her son, Akil, 17, prepares for his freshman year at MIT this fall, and her daughter, Asha, 12, wraps up her seventh grade school year, Kathy finds satisfaction in her daily role as either a scrub nurse, assisting a doctor in surgery, or as a circulating nurse, overseeing the day's surgeries.
"I enjoy learning something new everyday, and the attitude of everyone [at Ellis], especially in the OR, is just great," Kathy says. "It sounds cliche, but it is a very rewarding profession."
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