Goodbye from Adrienne 

It is with a little sadness, I announce my retirement from my CRM nurse job. It is now time for me to hang up my cap, uniform and sensible shoes to start new adventures.

I have been a nurse all my adult life, starting out as an auxiliary nurse on the renal unit at Hope hospital (now known as Salford Royal hospital). When I qualified as a staff nurse on 1991, my first job was on Heart Care Unit, Hope hospital. 

This was when I first fell in love with Cardiology. I then worked on medical wards for several years then got a job on Coronary Care Unit at Withington hospital in 1995. 

I moved to Acute Coronary Care Unit at Wythenshawe and worked as a Sister for the next 12 years, and I was involved in the start of emergency Primary Coronary Intervention (PCI), one of the most important elements of treating heart attacks. 

Time is tissue! The quicker a coronary artery is reopened, the less damage is done to the heart. As many of you may know, a damaged heart sometimes needs an ICD or CRT-D.

I have always been interested in teaching, and have often been told I am good at it! Some staff I have taught still have the teaching sessions I did with them 15 years ago!

When I got my CRM nurse job 12 years ago, I was ecstatic. I’m not ashamed to tell you, I cried with happiness when April Hopkins called me to tell me I’d got the job.

I felt I’d got my dream job. When Natasha came on board, the 3 of us developed the service to what you have now. We grew in numbers as the CRM service widened and now we have 6 CRM nurses and 2 secretaries, who keep us organised and efficient. They also tell us off if we get behind with our paperwork! 

I feel now is the time for me to let the team take over the service, and I leave you in their very capable hands. I do plan to be involved in the Support Group, so I will still be coming to the patient meetings.

So, what will I be doing with my time, you ask? Well, I’ll be going on holiday straight away! Then, I will be volunteering at Dogs Trust twice a week. I already volunteer one morning a week and it’s fabulous!

I’m looking into being a dog boarder for Digs For Dogs. I’ll also be going on great adventures with the love of my life, Coco. She’s a Shih Tzu and getting her is the best decision I’ve ever made!

Finally, I’d like to say a few thank yous.

Thank you to my team of amazing nurses, Natasha, Tina, Jamie, Sarah and Helen. You are the future of CRM. Thank you, Alison and Elaine, our secretaries, we cannot do our jobs without you. 

Thank you, Ian Temple and Dave Fox, my clinic Consultants and all the other EP Consultants. I’ve known some of you a long time, and it’s been great working with you (most of the time!). You have taught me so much.

Thank you, Cardiology secretaries. A special thank you to Clair, my friend. You keep the boys (Ian and Dave) in check and you bend over backwards for me and our patients. You are all amazing!

Thank you to everyone on the wards, past and present. You work hard. Take care of my teaching files, F5 staff, there are some really good ECG’s in those files! 

Thank you to the ICD Support Group Committee, past and present, for welcoming me into your group. Your expert by experience knowledge of ICDs and CRT-Ds is a credit to you.

You do what us nurses can’t. You tell patients what it’s like to live with a device, and that is priceless. You give hope and support to people when their world has been turned upside down. 

Finally, thank you to you, my patients, for allowing me to be a small part of your life. I believe it is a privilege to care for a poorly person, and I have always striven to give the best care possible. I have never underestimated the importance of this.

I look back on my 39 years as a nurse and have so many happy and sad memories. It’s been hard work at times, quite often, actually but I wouldn’t change a thing. There are so many others to thank, you clock up quite a lot of names after 39 years but thanks to you too!

See you all soon. Stay regular!

Adrienne x
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