Feature
A New Part to Play
Former marketing coordinator Ann Collins embarks on a new career
In December, Ann Collins, clinical marketing coordinator, packed up her office at SIU HealthCare, retiring after 20 years at her post. Typical notions of retirement are filled with adventurous travel, long lunches and pleasant afternoon hobbies. Those who know Collins could see her resurging onto the local theater and music scene. But Collins, 55, has different ambitions: she is headed back to school to become a registered nurse.
The nursing shortage is intensifying as the population ages and the need for health care increases. New nurses are in training to respond to the need. In December, 2009, Bureau of Labor Statistics analysts projected that more than 581,500 new RN positions will be created through 2018, increasing the RN workforce by 22 percent. Employment of RNs is expected to grow much faster than average when compared to all other professions.
Choosing a new career — especially in the medical field — surprised Collins more than anyone else. She’s never had aspirations to become a medical provider. “As a kid, I had my music; I was a math nerd, I loved theater.” She earned a bachelor’s degree in advertising at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a master’s of business administration. “I thought, ‘I’ll never have to go through school again!’ Guess I was wrong.” With her bright and bubbly personality, an infectious laugh, warmth of character and strong heart, maybe it’s not so surprising after all.
Collins has been taking care of her aging parents, Maggie and Cloyd, since her mother had a severe stroke seven years ago. “The stroke changed all our lives,” Collins says. “It’s been quite a process. The responsibility can be overwhelming.” For eight months, she drove to Rock Island every weekend to spend three days caring for her mother, whose left side was paralyzed. “She was a dynamic woman, sharp as a tack, but after the stroke, she had no ability to do anything. My sister had been taking care of our parents, and this gave her a break.” Her mother’s care was complicated by other neurological problems, including myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disorder. The disease and the stroke hid advancing Parkinson’s disease. In 2005, Collins brought her parents to Springfield, where her mother came under the care of SIU neurologist Rodger Elble, M.D. “He took great care of her,” Collins says. But she didn’t want to leave her mother’s side at all, so she decided to move into her parents’ assisted living facility at Lewis Memorial Village, where she learned nursing skills while helping to care for her mother, though she still had no interest in becoming a professional. “Mother lived eighteen months after we moved her here, and it was a wonderful thing to be with her during that time. My parents were able to be together here, and that was a good thing.” Collins would play piano during Sunday chapel services at Lewis Memorial. At the end of a service in March, 2007, “my mother bowed her head in prayer and just never brought her head up. After seeing her so incapable of doing anything for herself, it was a very peaceful way to complete the circle of life and finish my relationship with her here on earth.”
Following her mother’s death, Collins decided to bring her father to live in her home, where she could look after him more comfortably. Although stressful, Collins approaches everything with her trademark humor. “I only had to do three things to move my father in: put a railing on my front steps, get an electric lounger, and get a high toilet. Wouldn’t be without the toilet. I highly recommended it — get one now; don’t wait,” she laughs.
Three caregivers worked around the clock in Collins’ home, but they took a break in the afternoons, where Collins took a late lunch hour from SIU to serve her dad lunch and spend some quality time together. On a mid-December afternoon, she lovingly stroked her father’s head and called him Cloyd. She helped him to the bathroom and changed his clothes. She served him vegetable soup for lunch and a cookie for dessert. Before she returned to work, she played him a few Christmas songs on one of her pianos (she has two in her living room) and made sure he was ready for an afternoon nap. “Dad has Parkinson’s, depression, and dementia, but he’s doing pretty well,” Collins says.
Caring for aging parents took a toll on her personal life. “I had given up theater, although I occasionally play violin in a pit orchestra, but it gets expensive to pay caregivers for evening care.” Collins is known in Springfield as an accomplished vocalist, actress, and musician, performing in countless plays at The Springfield Muni Opera, The Theatre Centre, The Hoogland Center for the Arts, and other venues. A mezzo soprano, she’s sung at weddings, funerals, and parties. She also is devoted to her a vocal trio, “Three’s Company,” with friends Linda Schneider and Linda Morrow — who incidentally is one of her father’s caregivers.
A skilled musician, she plays the piano, the organ, the mandolin, guitar, bass, and has played flute in the past. She recently performed with the SIU String Ensemble at holiday gatherings. The string quartet includes Sally Fritz, Alzheimer researcher, Nancy Johnston, DVM, and Jamie Macagba, a third-year medical student.
In the past year, Collins made a comeback with a lead role in “Cowgirls,” a musical comedy about a trio of musicians, in which Collins got to stretch all her artistic muscles. “We all play four or five instruments, we sing, we act, memorizing all our musical parts to play. I thank my parents for forcing me to practice the violin.” She reprised her role in “Cowgirls” at the end of January while beginning her nursing studies. Despite her abundant gifts, Collins says never considered a career in the arts. “It’s my secret. It’s my hobby.” And she enjoys keeping it that way.
So with her father’s routine established, Collins found she had regained more personal time for musical theater — and a new aspiration. “One day out of the blue, I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll get an R.N. degree. Why not? What the heck?’ ” Keeping her ambitions quiet, Collins became a certified nursing assistant to qualify for nursing school. “I realized this was something I could enjoy in my retirement.”
A stellar student, she has enjoyed getting back to school. “I don‘t remember ever working so hard in school as I’ve done in anatomy, physiology, and chemistry. I’m fascinated learning about all the muscles, how our senses work. Our bodies are so amazing.” School, she says, is her new respite.
“I like that I’m doing it because I want to, not because I have to,” Collins says sincerely. “I don’t look at it like I’m starting over. Taking classes at my age is different than when I was 18. You look at life differently. I know where I want to put my energies. I want to have fun doing this.”
The gregarious Collins has made new friends in the varied group of students. Some are already in the medical field; most are going to medical school or nursing. But there are a few who have been laid off or are looking for a new career. “Maybe they were like me and answering the call for the shortage of nurses!”
In October, she learned she had a coveted spot in the January 2011 semester of Lincoln Land Community College’s nursing program. Once she turned in her retirement papers and let people in on her plans, she has had wonderful support from friends and family.
Her experiences with her parents, combined with a 20 year career at SIU HealthCare have helped Collins, as she says, “learn through osmosis.” Early in her SIU career, she managed transcription before becoming clinical marketing director. “I’m a patient-focused employee,” says Collins, who has made her one-person clinical marketing department very involved with the SIU patient satisfaction program. She was the voice patients heard when they telephoned SIU HealthCare with a question, concern, or compliment. “I constantly learned every time I talked with a patient. I have great empathy for nurses and the difficult job they have to do. These nurses have full clinics, minimal staff, and no time to call patients back. Some stay into the evening to finish making every call. They have to get along with everybody, patients, doctors, mid-level providers, staff, and families. I’ve tried to bring faculty and staff along asking, ‘Did you think about the patient when you made that decision?’ People probably got tired of me asking, ‘what about the patient,’ but I kept asking.”
Collins has worked tirelessly for 20 years to ensure good patient relations, everything from flower deliveries to seeing that patients get their test results. “My job absolutely helped me begin thinking about becoming a nurse, and I definitely believe handling all those calls will make me a better nurse.”
Once she finishes school in 2013, Collins envisions working with the elderly and perhaps interning at Memorial Medical Center. “I think that with my management and business experience of 35 years and my MBA, I might be a valuable nurse in a place like Concordia Nursing Home.” But her dream job is to help people like her parents as a private duty nurse. “Taking care of my father, I have seen the advantage of keeping people in their homes,” she says. “The quality of care can really affect people’s outlook on life. I have been able to stay on top of that care by managing the caregivers who help me take care of my father. We’ve all worked as a team, and we’ve all learned together as a team.” Her team includes an R.N., with 40 years experience, a caregiver from Lewis Memorial, and one of Collins’ dearest friends.
In her new calling as a front-line caregiver, the self-assured Collins will find new outlets for her wisdom and compassionate nature. “I’ve learned that you either want to take care of somebody, or you don’t; there’s nothing in between. It is a 24/7 job, whether you want it that way or not. Even with caregivers there, it’s on my mind. Caring for the elderly is truly watching the circle of life.”