Connie Deary
"I like my job – and I look forward to being in a different role here."
Connie Deary started her career when she was just eighteen and began to work at WCNH as a CNA (nursing assistant). Eighteen years later, she’s still with the Home. Her love for her work hasn’t changed, but her role is evolving.
This spring, Connie is working toward her RN degree. For the time being, the Home has put her many talents to work in different areas. She’s able to “float” to whatever area needs her, and she’s currently in charge of arranging transportation and accompanying some of the residents to their doctor’s appointments. So if any one is “on the go”, it’s Connie!
When she started 18 years ago, she liked her job at Wayne County Nursing Home “because of the caring atmosphere and teamwork” she found here. But she suffered a bit of culture shock at the same time, she says. “I didn’t realize that places like this existed. I didn’t think there were people in the community that needed so much help. I’d never visited a nursing home before. In my family, my grandmother has already passed away, and our family never needed that much help.”
Connie’s three children – now 18, 19 and 21 years old -- have had a different kind of exposure. “When they were little, I had the opportunity to bring my kids here on weekends.” Connie and her family live in Newark, NY, where she loves to garden and raise flowers.
Being a mom and a student nurse has been a challenge. While she’s been raising her children, she’s also been “plugging away at school.” Now that her kids are young adults, she was able to start concentrating on her career path.
Connie will be attending St. Joseph’s School of Nursing in Syracuse in May 2007. She’ll finish the program with her RN degree.
Eighteen years at one place is a long time – what kept her at WCNH?
“I’m a very caring person,” she says. “I know people here often need
a more empathetic person – and sometimes that’s hard. Sometimes you get
so attached to people, and it’s hard when they pass away.” Despite loss,
she stays.
“There are a lot of employees here at WCNH who’ve been here for a number of years… there’s not a lot of turnaround. You must like your job or you wouldn’t stay. It says a lot about the people here,” Connie says.
She believes in the benefits of WCNH’s progressive Household Model philosophy, too. “I think the new way at WCNH is THE WAY – it’s more like a customer service field, with hospitality elements. It’s so much more cheery at the new Home – it makes everyone feel happy.”
Working eventually as an RN will bring Connie new responsibilities and challenges.
“Right now I work on the floor in nursing. Being an RN is more of a management position… you work very closely with the doctors,” says Connie. “Working in Rehab has brought changes, too – it’s very demanding. There’s more paperwork – people are in different circumstances, and the patients are always changing [as they recover and move on].”
One thing is very evident when you talk with this soft-spoken, compassionate woman: “I like my job – and I look forward to being in a different role here.”
