PORTLAND, Maine — An Intensive Care Unit can be an emotional place at times, but the people in scrubs are usually the stoic ones.
On Tuesday, however, there were tears and hugs aplenty at Northern Light Mercy Hospital.
Carlene Stevens punched in at Mercy for 43 years, mostly in the ICU. Tuesday was her final shift.
Despite saying she never sought leadership positions, Stevens was the clinical nurse lead—a title about to be handed to Jenn Bayley.
"It's obviously quite an honor, and I hope that I can be half the nurse that she's been; and half the person she's been to this unit," Bayley said.
Stevens stuck with the job through years of staff changes, and of course the COVID-19 pandemic, which arrived in the middle of her five-year plan to retire. By her co-worker's accounts, she remained a critical part of their growth in critical care.
There is a common saying in medicine, that "nurses eat their young." Stevens' protégés have lived a different experience.
"I think we all aspire to be her, because she is literally the example of nursing leadership," Bayley said.
Jordynne Copp came to Stevens as a "baby nurse," fresh out of college. She had since risen to the ICU's nurse educator.
"Carlene is not only the best nurse in this hospital, but she is the most selfless and caring individual that I've ever met in my entire life," Copp said without hesitation.
"I do hope that the people that work alongside of me would think that I treat them with the same level of kindness that I extended to patients and families, and everybody that I came into contact with," Stevens said.
Despite the flood of hugs from co-workers, past and present, she was determined to be productive to the final hour.
"I have one more evaluation to do," she said, referring to nurse evaluations—a job for the clinical nurse lead who was not yet ready to relinquish the title.
The ICU was, thankfully, slow Tuesday morning. So, Stevens and a young nurse pulled chairs into a unused bay.
"I guess we can say that I saved the best for last," she smiled at the nurse.
"Alright, what should we start with?" Stevens turned over a page and began her final evaluation.