InTouch with Southern Kentucky June 2020 | Page 16

become known as Lake Cumberland
Regional.
“You could pretty much pick
where you wanted to work as far
as a nursing position,” Roberts
recalled. “In school I always enjoyed
obstetrics. I worked Postpartum for
a couple of years. Then I went to
day-shift Labor & Delivery.”
Roberts recalled talking with Dr.
Brian Priddle early one Sunday
morning after a delivery. She
told him it was just 7:30 a.m. and
they’d already been blessed. The
beloved physician responded that
“sometimes this is just too much
fun to call it work.
“I thought, ‘How well spoken,’”
Roberts said. “He loved his job too.”
After nearly 44 years at LCRH,
Roberts knows of a few instances
where she has attended to three
generations.
“I only wanted to do bedside
nursing,” she explained, though she
also enjoyed her role as a preceptor
(or mentor) for new nurses. “I never
had any desire for management.
I just like patients; I like the
interaction with them, and it was
just so much more rewarding to be
able to take care of labor patients.”
Roberts’ last day was April 4. She
initially planned to work a few more
months but the COVID-19 pandemic
forced her hand a little sooner than
anticipated and social distancing
restrictions kept her work family
from giving her a proper send-off.
“I had Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
back in 2001,” Roberts said. “It’s
kind of knocked my immunity
system down some.…It wasn’t the
way I planned [my retirement] but
you just do what you’ve got to do
and you want to keep everybody
safe.”
Though it was time, Roberts said
she sort of dreaded retirement
because she enjoyed her work so
Great nurse. Blessed to have worked with her for many
years. A nurse of that caliber will never be forgotten.
John Bruner
MD
16 • In Touch with Southern Kentucky June 2020