Difficult Yet Rewarding
Courtney Valenze
Nursing is a job that many find rewarding yet difficult. My mother Sherie Valenze is a nurse. Throughout Sherie Valenze’s nursing career she has worked in a few different places. Usually, she chose to work in the ICU of hospitals like Concord Hospital. After years of this she chose to work at Lincare and now she works at Lakes Region Community Services. She just stepped down from the Director of Nursing position at LRCS. LRCS is a non profit organization that works with mentally disabled individuals in the community setting. This came about after the state schools closed in NH, before they closed the state schools housed those with mental disabilities and treated them ways that are now seen as very unethical. Now the individuals live in others’ homes or in a group home setting. For this all to work out well there has to be nurses that delegate the job of medication giving to others who are not otherwise allowed to pass meds. This job is considered very rewarding and slower paced than some jobs Sherie has had in the past. Sherie Valenze is my mother and the interviewee today. Now working a 9 to 5 job that is only Monday to Friday, Sherie has found her happy place at LRCS.
“I work to live, I don’t live to work.”
What made you decide to go into nursing?
I actually never wanted to be a nurse when I was little. I never ever wanted to. I wanted to be a vet or work with mentally disabled individuals in a camp setting with animals. But, I got a job as a nursing assistant just because it was a job, part time and I didn’t need a car for it. I just walked to people’s houses. Then I decided to move up and become a CNA, which is a certified nursing assistant. This was a full time position. I worked at the nursing home for a while and then wanted to better my education and move up more. The next step was nursing. It was just something that I happened in to.
Do you choose happiness or money in a job?
Happiness. I work to live, I don’t live to work. Money doesn’t make me happy at all. I go for job satisfaction and I like warm fuzzy jobs.
What is your favorite job you have held as a nurse?
Nurse trainer at Lakes Region Community Services. I don’t mind being the director here but I preferred it when I had my old boss Steve, and Mary Lou was working with us. My life was less about work then and I wasn’t tied to my phone.
Is who you work with important in your happiness in your job as a nurse?
When picking my favorite job it was about respect in the position and camaraderie. I was working with a good team at the time. The job has always been about giving back and not about paying the bills but now I don’t have that same team and it isn’t the same.
What is the worst experience you have had as a nurse?
That’s hard. I have had a lot of bad experiences, and the worst would definitely be when I lost a patient. would say that the absolute worst would be my pediatric code. It was a 6 week old baby and the mother was screaming on the other side of the curtain. I was the one running the code and we lost the baby. That was one of the times that I couldn’t help but cry.
On that day, did you still think your job was rewarding?
Yes, someone has to do it. Not everyone can do something like that and not even every nurse can do something like that. It all has to do with having a purpose. Sometimes you can save them and other times you can’t. In that moment I just reminded myself of all the patients who coded that I did save over the years. When I went home your father was watching the news. There had just been a school shooting and I couldn’t watch that. I instantly put in the Rugrats and your father knew not to ask questions. On days like that you have to appreciate what you have done and sometimes you do have to let yourself feel the loss but not let it discourage you.