Spotlight On

You might not have ever thought about the parallels between a perioperative team and a hockey team, but Michael Rempel sees similarities. Michael grew up playing hockey in Brooklyn, N.Y., and when he got his first exposure to the OR while in nursing school, he observed the similarities right away.

Some people know at a really young age what they want to be when they grow up. Jeff Keane says he knew he wanted to be a nurse when he was in preschool.

Most successful people, regardless of their career, can point to a mentor who helped and encouraged them at a critical juncture. Ruth Plotkin Shumaker, MS, BSN, RN, CNOR is no exception.

If variety is the spice of life, Leigh Ann Bartlett’s nursing career is as hot as a ghost pepper. Leigh Anne’s nursing career began in 1995 on a Progressive Care Unit at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Health Wayne, formerly Wayne Memorial Hospital, in Goldsboro, N.C.

Beverly started her nursing career in 1976 as a staff nurse in labor and delivery at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. “One night a woman giving birth with a midwife had seizures and was eclamptic when they brought her in. It turned out that she had a ruptured liver. Doreen Reynolds, who many will remember, was working in the main OR that night and she came running in with all the equipment and everything that was needed for surgery.” 

Many perioperative nurses can vividly remember when they first sensed the calling to become a nurse. For Karen Elliott, it goes all the way back to when she was a little girl and got a toy nurse’s kit for Christmas.