Many may wonder what has kept Susan Hudson, BS, RN, in nursing at DeKalb Medical in Decatur, GA, for 37 years.

It's the patients.

Now ready to retire, Hudson reflected on her long, rich career. "Nursing is all I've ever done. I never had another job in my life, and I've been happy with it. It never crossed my mind to change jobs."

Hudson was drawn to nursing when she watched how her family cared for a nephew with cerebral palsy. "Plus, my mother pushed me toward it a lot," she admitted.

Hudson remembers the first bed bath she gave as a new nurse. "I was so afraid I was going to hurt the patient, so I was very gentle. After, I asked how he felt, and he said he felt so much better. I remember that just like it was yesterday."

Witness to Change

Hudson has worked in orthopedics since started at DeKalb, and she has enjoyed watching the field grow and change over the years. "When I first started, we didn't even have a physical therapy department; we had to get the patients up by ourselves," she recalled.

She remembers when DeKalb first performed total hip replacements, and routinely used skeletal traction. She also has weathered numerous nursing shortages.

"We tend to think [a shortage is] the end of the world when it happens, but when you've been in nursing as long as I have, you learn to wait it out and it changes. That's a little hard to tell the younger nurses."

She also has witnessed trends, such as the orthopedic unit combining with the neuro floor. She also has been introduced to computerized charting.

Through the years, she has considered her co-workers not only her friends but also part of her extended family.

'Big Sister'

As a seasoned nurse, Hudson takes cues from the "big sister" nurses who befriended her when she started in 1971. "When they get discouraged and it's a horrible, busy day, with not enough staff, I will tell them to just hang in there - do the best you can and things will get better. They always do. It sometimes takes a while."

She encourages new nurses to "stay in one place, work on med/surg floor until you're experienced and then go on to another area if you want to."

"I have been thinking about retirement, but it will be very difficult for me to leave DeKalb Medical," Hudson said. "I think I will miss coming to work. In fact, I know I will. I know this place has been my life and these people have been my family."