The longest-serving employee on record at Blessing Hospital, Ann St. Clair, BSN, RN, CAPA, retires on March 20 after 53 years of service.

She says she feels the years have flown by because she was doing something she loved.

“When I was in junior high I said, ‘I want to be a nurse,’ and that’s what I went after,” Ann said. “I wanted to be a nurse and take care of people. That’s what I have done.”

Born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and raised in Quincy, Ann was a Nurses’ Aide at Good Samaritan Home for one year before joining Blessing Hospital in 1973. She spent her first 11 years at Blessing as a licensed practical nurse, becoming a registered nurse in 1984. Ann worked on a medical-surgical unit for 27 years, transferred to the Surgery Recovery Room for the next 10 years, and spent the last 16 years of her career as a member of the One Day Surgery team.

She graduated from Quincy High School, the Quincy School of Practical Nursing, received her registered nursing education from the Blessing Hospital School of Nursing, and earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Quincy University in 1989. Since 2013, Ann has held Certified Ambulatory Perianesthesia Nurse (CAPA) status, recognizing her specialized expertise in caring for patients before and after receiving anesthesia, sedation or analgesia in outpatient settings. She is also a member of the American Society of Perianesthesia Nurses.

In her spare time, Ann shares her compassion for people by sewing Memory Bears for families of Blessing Hospice patients, and crochets blankets for newborns of Blessed Beginnings families. She lives on a farm in Clark County, Missouri, with her husband of 38 years, Mark.

Changes through the years

Ann has seen many advancements in technology since 1973, one in particular.

“Computers. That’s the biggest one,” she said. “We’ve had lots of changes in the way we do things, but you still take care of patients the same way.”

Ann played a role in the lives of many patients, with one still fresh in her memory.

“Years ago, we had a patient – a young man – with a disease that was really rare,” she recalled. “It got so he could not talk to us. But he would go like this,” Ann said as she held one of her hands up in the American Sign Language sign for the phrase ‘I love you.’

While the 2020 pandemic led to burnout and career change for some in the healthcare field, not for Ann.

“During that time, I could have retired and there were many people that did. I didn’t have to stay. But I liked my job.”

She also enjoyed taking care of people she knows. And at 73 years old, Ann knows a lot of people.

“They love it because they know you. You are someone they can connect with. I never hesitated to take care of people I knew.”

Her parting advice for others in the healthcare field is to be a teacher as well as a caregiver. “You have to teach people how to take care of themselves, how to be well,” Ann concluded.