Janice Allen and Tracy Blyth are just two of many nurses throughout the community who came out of retirement to work at Southlake Regional Health Centre vaccine clinics during the pandemic.
Though Allen was happy to help Southlake staff the clinics, the real driving force behind her decision was to enable community members to reunite with their families, she said.
"I wanted to help the community really, to enable them to return to some sense of normalcy and reunite families again. The vaccines were the best strategy we had at that time to enable families to get back together with their family members and to have a more normal life."
For Allen and Blyth, the splendours of retirement weren’t enough to stop them from playing their part in the fight against COVID-19 and they were eager to work as vaccinators at the Southlake and Southlake Community OHT COVID-19 vaccine clinics, said Danae Theakston, communications strategist at Southlake, in a news release.
A large proportion of the nurses at the clinics were retired, Allen said, and there was a sense of teamwork and camaraderie among the staff that saw upwards of 1,700 people per day at the clinic.
“Being able to go back and work with such an incredible group of people who were all like-minded and wanted to help in the pandemic response by providing COVID-19 vaccines was so refreshing.” said Blyth. “I had older clients who you could tell were just so excited and eager to be out in the community and interacting with people again, and I was more than happy to be a listening ear to their stories after many months of being cooped up in our homes.”
Allen, who retired in 2019, worked as a nurse in various departments at Southlake for 36 years. She contacted the hospital to offer her services in 2021.
She knew working in the clinic might impact her own safety, she said, and the safety of her family, but she had confidence in the vaccine and it didn't deter her from wanting to help out.
"Sure, you think about that. We were able to get our first dose of the vaccine. I thought about my family, could I potentially contract something and bring it home to them. All of those things went through my mind. I think overall, the goal to support the community was the greater one."
"The return of retired health-care nurses like Tracy and Janice allowed the hospital to operate a vaccination clinic while already dealing with ongoing staffing challenges that were further exacerbated by the pandemic. They played an integral role in supporting our community throughout COVID-19," said Theakston.
Both nurses have since returned to retirement.
