facebook pixel Skip to main content
Back
Close

News

Retired nurses step up to join the battle against COVID-19 at Southlake

Thursday March 3, 2022

For nurses Janice Allen and Tracy Blyth, helping people has been at the core of everything they have done throughout their careers. After both working long, meaningful careers in the nursing profession, Janice and Tracy retired, ready to relax and enjoy time with their families and friends.  

However, the unexpected arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented stresses to the healthcare system. While hospitals dealt with increasing cases, and healthcare workers grew increasingly tired battling the pandemic, there was a light at the end of the tunnel – vaccinations.  

“When we got word that we would be getting vaccinations, and started planning to open our own vaccine clinic, we put out the call for vaccinators,” noted Anne Forsey, Manager of Community Programs at Southlake. “We were so thrilled to get such a great response from healthcare workers who were ready and willing to come staff the clinic.”  

One of those workers was Janice.  

Janice worked her entire career in healthcare, first as a nurse, then a Nurse Practitioner, before retiring as the Director of Southlake’s Regional Cardiac Program. So not only did she understand as a hospital administrator that finding staff can be difficult, but she also knew she wanted to be able to do whatever she could to support the hospital’s response to the pandemic.  

“I understood the need to follow public health measures to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19, but I also saw how hard it was for everyone to be isolated,” said Janice. “The vaccines were the real first light at the end of the tunnel that gave people hope that they could return to some sense of normalcy, and I wanted to be a part of that.”  

With it being years since Janice had practiced frontline nursing, she was unsure of what to expect coming out of retirement. The outcome, however, was more than she could have anticipated.  

“It was a really phenomenal experience hearing firsthand what this vaccine meant for everyone that walked through our doors. Every single person that I spoke with at the vaccine clinic was so kind and expressed so much gratitude for the vaccination and to those of us who came out of retirement to help support this initiative.”  

After many months of helping vaccinate our communities, Janice has once again gone back into retirement. And as the vaccine clinic continues to operate, being staffed by several retired nurses, physicians and healthcare workers, nurse Tracy says she didn’t even think twice about coming out of retirement to help.  

“I have already retired twice from frontline work, yet here I am, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!”, said Tracy.  

Tracy retired in May of 2021 after working most of her career as a nurse in Southlake’s surgical program and was unable to return to work as she was taking care of her sick father. But when the opportunity came up in December of 2021 to work at the Southlake Community OHT vaccination clinic, Tracy knew she couldn’t pass up the opportunity.  

“Being able to go back and work with such an incredible group of people who were all like-minded and wanted to help in the pandemic response by providing COVID-19 vaccines was so rewarding.”  

Each person who came through the doors of the vaccine clinic had their own stories to tell and their own reasons for getting vaccinated. Tracy recalls that every day you could see just how important vaccinations were for people. 

“I had older clients who you could tell were just so excited and eager to be out in the community and interacting with people again, and I was more than happy to be a listening ear to their stories after many months of being cooped up in their homes.”  

The Southlake Community OHT vaccine clinic continues to run, providing vaccinations for our communities, and staffed by nurse Tracy and many other incredible retired healthcare workers. 

For both Tracy and Janice, the splendors of retirement weren’t enough to stop them from playing their part in the fight against COVID-19.