By James Phillips
jphillips@sctonline.net
For Sandra Martin — one of the 12 people featured in this week’s paper as part of Profile 2019 — nursing has not only been a 31-year career, it has been a lifelong calling. She considers herself a “life long learner” and has continued to adapt to the ever-changing medical field during her three decades in health care.
In her current position as Lackey Memorial Hospital Convalescent Home Director of Nursing she gets the opportunity to do two of her favorite things, caring for patients and teaching the nursing staff. Martin has seen many changes throughout her 31 years of nursing, but one thing she has found is a home at Lackey Memorial Hospital during her 16 years at the Forest hospital.
Martin said that even from a young age she was always wanting to fix things and help people if they were hurt. “I was the little girl that carried the band-aids around to help everyone,” she said. “I have always enjoyed helping people and caring for them. For me, nursing has always been more than a job it has been my calling.”
When Martin graduated from Morton High School in 1978 she did not immediately start down the nursing path. “I did not go into nursing right after I graduated, but when I was working with the Mississippi Ethics Commission in Jackson the opportunity final came,” said Martin. “There was a severe shortage in the nursing and that is when nursing first peeked my interest. At that time is was not a decision I made based on what I wanted to do, but I believed I was making a good business decision for my family. As I thought about it, I believed that going into nursing would be the best way for me to raise my family with the least amount of struggle.
“I went to Hinds Community College in Raymond and earned my Associates Degree in nursing in 1988. I would go on to earn my Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Mississippi in 1998. It was the best decision I could have made. I truly love my job and it has allowed me to put two children through school and give me the chance to do what I love every day,” she said.
Martin has only one regret that stands out to her over her long nursing career. She wishes that she would have started a journal back when she first started working as a nurse in the late 1980’s. “I would have loved to have started a journal when I first started,” Martin said. “If I could have recorded everything and kept up with all of my experiences and funny stories it would have really been amazing.
“I told my daughter if I would have written down all of the things I have seen and done over the last 30 years she would be absolutely amazed if she could actually read about it. Things were so different when I first started. I think it would be very entertaining to be able to go back and read about all those old experiences that have led me to where I am,” she said.
Of Martin’s 31 years in nursing over half of that time she has spent with Lackey Memorial Hospital. For a three year span, from 2013 through 2016, she was assigned to the hospital’s corporate office in Magee as Director of Long Term Care. Other than that time period Martin has been at the hospital in Forest.
There are numerous reasons why she loves working at the hospital in Forest including the team she works with, the patients under her care, and being part of what she calls a wonderful company to work for. To top off all the positives about her work environment there is one that is the best of all.
One of Martin’s cohorts is her daughter, Christina, who is a registered nurse and serves as the facilities Infection Control Nurse and Discharge Planning Nurse. “There was no one more surprised than me to find out my daughter wanted to follow in my footsteps and become a nurse,” Martin said. “I’m very proud of Christina and I feel very blessed to get to work with her on a daily basis. I work with her a lot and we get to attend continuing education classes together. Working with her has just made the job I love even better.”
Martin is very happy working right where she is and said that there are so many things, in addition to her daughter working there, that make Lackey home. “Throughout my time here Lackey has truly become a home to me and there is no other place I would rather be,” she said. “Our nursing home here is truly a gem for us and the residents. We are well staffed and we have a wonderful administration team that that supports all our efforts and will do anything for us. It really makes it feel like a working family.”
Teaching has always been something that Martin really enjoys. In her current position she has many teaching opportunities that she truly cherishes. “I have always wanted to teach, but I never had the opportunity to teach in a different setting so I have made the most teaching here in my current setting,” Martin said. “We have a number of people that have worked here for a long time and furthered their education during that time. Many nurses start here as Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN) and I work with them and teach them as often as I can. We have had a few nurses who ended up going back to school and becoming Registered Nurses. I have really enjoyed helping them accomplish their goals.”
Even after 31 years caring for patients Martin said she still loves coming to work and doing her job. “I still love it like I just started,” she said. “I enjoy every single day and this place has become a home to me. It is truly my life’s calling and I don’t have any plans to stop doing what I love. The healthcare field changes a lot, but there will always be something for me to do here at Lackey.”
