There are a lot of reasons why Anne Marie Langthorne was chosen as the recipient of the 2007 Florence Nightingale Award during this annual Nursing Week.
But it all begins and ends with the empathy she feels, and shows, for her patients.
“She is an exuberant, caring, sensitive person who talks to people from her heart and touches them,” says Wally Reinstein, who sent a moving letter of recommendation to the nomination committee in the annual event sponsored by The Toronto Star.
“She explains to people what’s going to be happening to them,” says Reinstein of the fourth floor palliative care work that Langthorne oversees as charge nurse at the McCall Centre at the Toronto West campus of Trillium Health Centre. “She makes people feel like people again,” Reinstein said a few moments after Langthorne accepted her award in a sunny alcove outside the continuing care centre. “Restoring a little dignity and quality of life is what makes a difference,” said Reinstein.
In her gracious acceptance speech, the 43-year-old Mississaugan, who has lived here since 1984, pushed all the right buttons. “The story of Florence Nightingale was the driving force of my interest and what has inspired me to become a nurse,” said the Oakville native as her proud parents, David and Marie looked on, along with husband Tom and sons Aaron, 5 and Christian, 3.
“As a young girl of 8 or 9, I vividly remember a book about Florence Nightingale and read and reread her story.”
The message was obviously absorbed. The Applewood Heights resident paid tribute not only to the medical team that provides service to terminal patients but to the laundry, pharmaceutical and dietary staff who, “play a role that binds our patients and families together within our hospital.”
In her concluding remarks, the nurse who came to McCall in 1986 put the emphasis back on those who are served, saying, “I gratefully and humbly accept this wonderful award on behalf of all the patients and families who have graced our presence throughout the years and invited us to share in their history and participate in their lives during very difficult times.”
In a later chat, Langthorne said it is inevitable that you form strong bonds with the dying, especially when you sit and listen to their life histories unfold over time. “I remember one woman who came over on one of the ocean liners that was sailing at the time that the Titanic sank. She was 12 years old. They turned around but they couldn’t get to where the Titanic was.”
What stands out most over her 21 years working at the centre, which is operated by Extendicare but operates in conjunction with the adjoining hospital, is the courage of the patients who stare straightforwardly into the eyes of death.
“There are very difficult times. You forge a very strong bond with some of them. When they pass on, you lose a piece of yourself to them.
“Dying is a part of life, and it is just as important as birth. We do a lot of talking and I do a lot of listening. The families know we offer a legacy, that they were comfortable and it wasn’t a scary experience for them.”
Perhaps the highest compliment paid Langthorne came from a family member who had watched the nurse care for her mother as if she were her own.
While the continuing care centre served her bodily needs and eased her physical pain, Anne Marie Langthorne was judged an “angel” by this woman because she had done much more. She had nourished and lifted her dying mother’s spirit.