SGO Wellness Blog: From the AIDS Crisis to COVID and Everything in Between: Reflections on Retiring After 44 Years in Nursing | Nan Martin
Nan Martin, RN—1981 and 2025
As I contemplate my retirement, I think about my first job and my last. In 1982, I worked as a nurse on a 15 bed Heme/ Onc Floor in Denver, Colorado. I moved out there from Michigan to put some distance between me and my comfy midwest lifestyle. I was 21 years old. After a 6 week orientation period, I was on my own. I was the only nurse on the floor. No Aide. No LPN. Just me. If I needed help repositioning a patient or retrieving blood products, I walked down a long hall to the med/surg unit and cajoled a reluctant Aide to help me out. The nights were busy. Cancer patients don’t sleep. I emptied bed pans, foley catheters, and ashtrays. I rubbed backs and changed dirty linens. I started IVs. I hung antibiotics and morphine. I counted the drips. I mixed chemo by hand under a hood on a blue chux. No gloves. No masks. No IV pumps. No labels.
The day shift came on, and I would clock out. But I stayed on the floor just to be with people. I helped with breakfast and bed baths. I listened to the banter of my preceptors and soaked up their knowledge. We rolled up our sleeves and got our hands dirty. These women laid the foundation for my entire career.
After a year of straight nights and mountain views, I moved to Chicago for a day/night rotation position at Evanston Hospital on the oncology unit overlooking Lake Michigan. We had an all RN staff as a costly experiment in primary care nursing. There were 28 of us energetic, motivated, smart women. We performed every task ourselves- vitals, bed baths, feeding, changing linens, repositioning patients, transfers – it allowed us to really assess the patient, head to toe. Passing meds, accessing ports, administering antibiotics, chemo, blood, platelets, monitoring labs, running codes, and performing end of life care was all in a days’ work. Rounding with the MDs and Residents was particularly gratifying because we were part of the team. They respected us, and we learned from each other.
In 2016, after a 30 year absence, I returned to work at Evanston Hospital as a Collaborative RN in Gynecology Oncology at the Kellogg Cancer Center. Since then, I have been surrounded by a team of talented, devoted caregivers and support staff. Collectively, they are the greatest pool of talent I have ever worked with. They take exceptional care of very sick people. They make each patient’s cancer journey tolerable. Individually, these fine co-workers are my friends and my family. We have spent 10 hours a day side by side in cramped offices with no windows. We have laugh, cried, and argued. We have swapped stories, recipes, baby clothes, travel tips, music, and fashion. We have celebrated weddings, new babies, and first homes. We have watched our children grow up and leave the nest. We have mourned the decline and death of our parents. We have stood by each other in joy and sorrow- personally and professionally.
During my last week of work, I encountered a young new RN on the elevator. She exclaimed, “I’m a new nurse on the Oncology floor, and I’m so excited to get started!” This was serendipity! My response: “Well, I’m an old nurse ending my career, but I started on that same floor. I have had a long, fulfilling career for 44 years!” She said she couldn’t believe it, and actually, neither can I. There have been so many Nursing highlights between 1982 and 2025. In addition to working on various Oncology Units: Home Health, Home Hospice, Internal Medicine, School Nursing, and Management. If I had to sum it up I would say this: I survived the AIDS crisis and the Covid pandemic… and everything in between. Caring for others has been my greatest achievement and my greatest pleasure.
Nan Martin, RN, is a retired oncology and gynecologic oncology nurse with more than 40 years of clinical experience.