Nurse Anne is putting away her scrubs after 50 years of providing care.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood, we spoke with Anne Lane, 70, retired nurse.
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: I grew up in Barrie.
I moved to Toronto to go to nursing school when I was 17.
Q: What made you want to become a nurse?
A: I had eye surgery when I was five and it didn’t go that well.
The nurses just weren’t quite what I thought they should be. They were rushing.
I wanted to be better.
I decided I wanted to be a nurse at a hospital for sick children, and I never wavered from that.
Q: Which school did you attend?
A: I went to the Hospital for Sick Children nursing school. I was in the last class because it moved into colleges in 1974.
I loved it from the first day.
The Hospital for Sick Children was a great place to do nursing because you got experiences in many different hospitals.
Q: Where did your career take you after that?
A: I worked at the Hospital for Sick Children as was my goal, and I loved it. I got married and it was shift work, so I moved into visiting nursing in downtown Toronto. It was great. This was back in the day when nurses would visit you at your home.
I would walk, carrying my bag over my shoulder, taking the streetcar.
Downtown Parkdale at that time was not the best. Sometimes I would have to take police with me to change a dressing or something like that.
Then, I moved into family practice in downtown Toronto in the late 1970s, early 1980s during the AIDS epidemic.
We had so many people die of AIDS. It was a really sad time to be a nurse. There wasn’t a lot of treatment available for them and they died terrible deaths. It was very, very sad.
After that, I had kids and moved to Kleinburg. That’s where we raised our kids. During that time I worked at a Vaughan pediatric clinic, working for a very nice doctor who is now my grandkids’ doctor. I started the first day he started practice. I worked with him for 17 years. It was a great experience.
I did a nursing stint in the Dominican Republic, volunteering there. I was a young graduate and my church asked me to go, not as a missionary but as a nurse. I ran a Well Baby Clinic. At that time, the area had no tourism and was very impoverished. Most of the kids had never had vaccines. That sticks out in my mind, as adorable little kids so full of life.
I taught pediatrics at Humber College for a few years. It was great to mould young minds. I had a lot to give. I had certain standards that maybe were antiquated, but I wanted to pass that knowledge on.
Q: What qualities make a good nurse?
A: I think compassion is the first thing. Kindness.
Being able to look at the whole patient and what their needs are — not just focusing on one problem.
Q: When did you come up to live in Collingwood?
A: Twenty years ago.
Our plan was that I was going to retire. It didn’t go the way I thought it would.
I was just bored out of my mind. I was too young to retire at that point.
A friend of mine called and said there was a family doctor here who was really stuck. I went in to meet with Dr. Richard Cornell, and we had a lovely chat. He asked when I could start. I was happy to help out for a few weeks.
Now, it’s 20 years later.
Q: You retired on Aug. 23, which marked 50 years exactly since you graduated nursing school. How has nursing changed over that time?
A: It’s changed for the registered nurses. They’re the administrative people now. When I started, the role was really about bedside nursing, and I moved onto a leadership role. We have great personal support workers and registered practical nurses who take on a lot of the work.
For the most part, I feel like nurses are very kind. Any that I have dealt with have been compassionate. There’s different training and different ideas and that’s fine, as long as the patient is being cared for.
Q: Do you have any stories that stand out to you over your 50-year career that you’d like to share?
A: The first head nurse I had, her name was Miss Divine. She was very regimented in her thinking.
Back then, we had those crank beds. If we left the crank out, she’d come and kick us in our shins.
I remember when I arrived on the floor, she said, “You’re from SickKids? You know nothing.”
It was terrible, but I learned more from her than any head nurse I had.
She was so strict and such a perfectionist, it shaped my career. I still think about it.
The patients I really have memories of are the AIDS patients. They were mostly young men and it was so sad because you do become close to them.
Q: What are your hobbies?
A: I love to hike. I kind of do it every day. On days when I’m working, I would just go around the medical building to Sunset Point to get a walk in.
I love the trails. The trails in Collingwood are amazing.
It’s one of the things I’m hoping to do more in my retirement. I’d like to get on the Bruce Trail and do some volunteer work with them.
I’d like to do some volunteer work with the EarlyON centre. I’m starting to work that out. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to doing for a really long time.
My sister just moved from Hamilton to retire here, so I’m very lucky. We have great friends. We’re busy every day.
I’m hoping for a healthy, active retirement full of new adventures.
Q: Is there anything else you want people in Collingwood to know about you?
A: My last 20 years in family practice, I’ve probably enjoyed the most. Dr. Cornell is such a fine man and great doctor, and our patients were lovely. We had whole families. I have really enjoyed that part — getting to know people in Collingwood.
I enjoyed working here.
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