For 60 years, Stevie Cousans, RN, has cared for patients at FMOL Health | St. Francis through countless changes in healthcare and several different areas of nursing. Through it all, one thing has remained constant: Stevie still loves the work and the people who have made St. Francis her second family.
Finding a Second Home
Stevie came to St. Francis after Dr. Guthrie Jarrell encouraged her to leave her previous employer and join the hospital. Having attended Catholic school, she immediately felt a connection to the Franciscan Sisters who were serving at St. Francis.
“With the nuns being here, I felt right at home,” Stevie recalls. “St. Francis quickly became a second home for me, and now it is really my second family.”
Many of the Sisters became mentors to Stevie, each influencing her career in a different way. Over six decades, that career has taken her from obstetrics to medical nursing, renal care, the emergency department and supervisory roles.
Ask her to choose a favorite, though, and she won’t.
“That is like comparing apples, oranges and grapes,” Stevie says. “I have liked them all.”
Six Decades of Memories
Some experiences have been especially hard to forget. Early in her career, Stevie delivered her first baby when the doctor could not arrive in time. The delivery took place in the back seat of a Volkswagen Beetle.
Today, Stevie works in the emergency department completing medication reconciliation and continues to enjoy one of the things she has always valued about nursing: meeting patients and their families.
She also takes pride in watching the nurses around her respond to whatever comes through the emergency department doors.
“I am always amazed and proud of how these nurses can meet the needs of all the ways they are being called on,” Stevie says. “I take great pride in working with them.”
Putting Your Heart Into Nursing
After 60 years, Stevie knows nursing asks a lot of those who choose it. She also knows how much it gives in return.
“Nursing is not only an occupation, it is your life,” she says. “It’s a place you cry with strangers when things are bad and laugh when things go well. It is usually not easy, but it is fulfilling.”
Her advice to anyone considering the profession is equally straightforward.
“You have to have your heart in it.”
That commitment to nursing extends well beyond Stevie’s own career. Her three daughters, Julie Caldwell, Jennifer Sibley and Stephanie Perry, are all registered nurses. Two granddaughters, Courtney Henry and Julianne Roan, have followed the same path.
“You can say nursing runs in the family,” Stevie says.
And after six decades of caring for others, Stevie isn’t setting a date for when that career will end.
“I tell everyone I have just two things that will come before my retirement starts: when I don’t like it anymore or I can’t do it anymore.”
For now, she still loves what she does and the St. Francis family she does it alongside.
