“I cannot imagine being anything but a nurse!” Celebrating Colleen and her 32 years of service at Joseph Brant Hospital.

“I cannot imagine being anything but a nurse!”

Colleen began working at Joseph Brant Hospital (JBH) as a nurse over 32 years ago and during this time she worked in progressively more senior roles before retiring as the Manager of the Operating Room, Post-Anesthesia Care Unit, Day Surgery, Ambulatory Procedure Unit and Medical Device Reprocessing Department this January.

After moving to Burlington, it was the proximity of the hospital to her home that made her apply to work as an RN at JBH. However, it was the people and culture that kept her here.

“Prior to working at JBH, I had worked in large academic centres.  With the layers of people coming and going, building lasting relationships often get lost,” she said.  “At JBH every discipline has a vital role in delivering patient care and the collaboration is evident in a hospital of this size.”

During her time at JBH, she was involved in several strategic and beneficial changes to operations that have significantly impacted patient care including, integrating the Medical Device Reprocessing Department under the Operating Room Management portfolio, as well as moving the peri-operative and surgery units into the new South Tower in 2017.

“By incorporating the MDRD into the surgical program, we helped foster a bond between our MDRD and our Operating Room staff. This helped to highlight the importance of each team’s work and created an understanding of shared goals and key efficiencies that needed to be responded to in real time,” she said. “In facilitating the move of our surgery units in 2017, there was immense learning that happened, with many early morning meetings, numerous walk-throughs and tours of other sites that lasted for months. However, our OR suites were in desperate need of modernization. It was a lot of work, but transitioning to a new OR is every OR nurses dream!”

Throughout her time, she has been known as someone who goes above and beyond to support her staff and patients. She has been described as someone who is always the first person to provide positive feedback and accolades to the work of her teams.

“Colleen has held many positions at JBH and throughout all of her roles, she has always prioritized patients and staff. During the pandemic, she supported patients and teams through COVID-19-related protocols,” said Sara Pereira, Director, Surgery, Ambulatory Care & Oncology. “Her deep knowledge of her portfolio and of the organization will be missed.”

As she gets ready to embark on her well-deserved retirement, we asked her what she has planned.

“I will be spending time with my family, I have a trip booked in February and hopefully exploring interests that I haven’t had the time to pursue!”

When asked if she had any reflections relating to her time at JBH she shared the following.  

“It’s truly hard to imagine that it has been 32 and a half years. I have had the great honour and privilege of working alongside a lot of wonderful people. I will certainly miss everyone.”

Thank you Colleen for your commitment to providing patient-centred care and to serving our community for over 32 years. We will miss you and we wish you all the best as you head off to your well-deserved retirement!