Nursing is a lifetime profession for Farie
National Nurses Week is May 6-12 and for many the profession isn’t just a career, it’s a passion. Elaine Farie, who works for Interim HealthCare, discovered her love of nursing at the age of 7 and has now been a nurse for 54 years. Josie Sellers | Beacon
COSHOCTON – National Nurses Week is May 6-12 and for many the profession isn’t just a career, it’s a passion.
Elaine Farie first discovered her love of nursing when she was 7-years-old.
“I was the youngest of four born in 1941,” she said. “Those were depression and war times, but I still remember getting a nurses kit for Christmas when I was 7. “I’d put band-aids on my baby dolls and take care of the pets. I just knew I wanted to be a nurse, but I also knew it was going to be a lot of hard work.”
The summer after Farie graduated from high school she became a nurses’ aid to get a taste for the field before going on the St. Francis School of Nursing in Columbus. She graduated from the three year program in 1962.
“I still remember the day I officially passed my state boards – Dec. 8, 1962,” Farie said. “We were trained in everything back then. There were no ICUs then either. The sickest patients were just kept closest to the nurses’ station and everyone worked as a team. You took care of the whole patient, heart and soul. Back then people stayed in the hospital a lot longer too. You didn’t leave until you were well enough to go home.”
She has now been a nurse for 54 years.
“It’s a tribute to my schooling and education,” Farie said.
Over the years she has worked at hospitals, for physicians, care facilities and nursing homes, home health agencies and insurance companies, but her true love was being a hospice nurse.
“It was my forte,” Farie said. “You worked with the whole patient and I got to use the skills I was taught to do that.”
In 1988 she won the Nurse of Hope award for Licking County.
“There were no beepers then,” Farie said. “Everyone had my home phone number and I would just be there. I learned to cry with people and laugh with them. You can’t fix everything with a pill.”
Today she works for Interim HealthCare and has developed nursing outreach programs at churches she has attended.
“I still see so much of a need, but I know I’m not going to fix everything because it’s all in God’s hands,” she said. “I just hope and pray that people become nurses because it’s in their hearts.”
Farie is 75, has 13 grandchildren and between she and her husband they have nine adult children, but she doesn’t plan on hanging up her stethoscope anytime soon.
“I’ve been blessed with good health and I truly give the Lord the credit,” Farie said. “I’ve had patients die in my arms, seen babies born and almost miracles happen when people have been close to death but survived or went home after big time operations. Medical technology has come a long way, but nothing can replace the human side of it.”
Category: People & Places
