Shirley Granstrom: Nurse of the Year
Among other highly qualified candidates for Nurse of the Year, there’s a slight chance it was her famous pink Jello® that put Shirley Granstrom over the top. But the luscious confection is only one gift she has brought to her unit during her more than 35 years of nursing.
In all likelihood, Granstrom didn’t understand all the nuances of nursing when, at age 5, she told her mother that’s what she wanted to be when she grew up. But the caregiving and compassion were qualities that resonated with her even then.
After she announced her intent to her mom, Granstrom never wavered. At 16, she became a Red Cross volunteer at a veterans’ hospital in Chicago.
“The moment I walked onto the unit,” she says, “I fell in love with nursing. I aked the nurses to show me how to make a bed, and of course they said, ‘Sure, we’ll show you how to make all the beds.’ But I was off and running. I loved the contact with the nurses and the doctors and especially the patients. Caregiving is a role I was very comfortable with immediately.”
Granstrom is the first to admit it takes a very special kind of draw to go into nursing.
“It’s what we choose to do,” says Granstrom. “For most nurses, it’ deep inside of us, and it’s something we’re driven to do. It’s my passion; it’s what fulfills my life, this taking care of patients. Not everyone can. I think it’s something you have to be alled to do, and you have to realize you want it.”
Granstrom moved with her family to the Peninsula when her husband,Wallace, made a career move. Their daughter Melissa, 26, is studying to become a nurse and son Joshua, 20, is looking into becoming a radiologic technologist. Their mentor is standing by.
“To be a good nurse or caregiver of any sort, it takes experience,” says Granstrom. “The more life experience you have, the better you can relate to your patients. It takes caring for people and a compassion that makes you want to help them work through whatever it is they’re dealing with.”
After more than three decades in the field, Granstrom simply wants to do more. She is also a certified parish nurse, a lay position that enables her to bridge gaps between the parishioners within her own faith community and the members of the medical community.
“As long as I can physically keep at it,” she says, “I’m going to do it. As Andy Rooney says, ‘I’d rather wear out than rust out.’ There are so many different directions you can go in; the variety is what makes it interesting and enables you to have longevity in the field.
“But really, I’m just a little worker bee. There are so many like me at the hospital; it is truly overwhelming and humbling to have the acknowledgement of Nurse of the Year. It’s quite an honor Community Hospital bestows. Especially when so many are deserving of it.”