GLASGOW — Mary Gramlin has been employed at T.J. Samson Community Hospital for 40 years, but she didn’t start out wanting to be a nurse.

Gramlin, who is from the Dry Fork community of Barren County, was working at Doyle’s Department store on Glasgow’s Public Square and attending business school with aspirations to become a secretary when she decided to apply for a nurse’s aid job at the hospital. She was 20 years old.

“Mrs. (Ann) Rodgers was director of nursing at that time and she advised me, instead of being an aid, she thought I should go on to LPN school,” she said. “When I came out to ask her about a job, she had some papers in front of her and she said, ‘With as much education as you’ve got, why don’t you go on to LPN school.’ I thought maybe she’s right, so I applied and got in.”

Gramlin said she’s glad she took Rodgers’ advice and says she enjoys being an LPN.

“I like the thought that maybe I can help somebody. It just gives you a good feeling to know that maybe someday you will do something, or say something that will enable you to help somebody,” she said.

During her nursing career, Gramlin has only worked at T.J. Samson Community Hospital. She graduated from LPN school, which was located in the same spot as it is now across the parking lot from the hospital, on May 9, 1969. She began working at the hospital on May 12, 1969. She has also only worked eight-hour shifts.

“I worked 3 to 11 when I first started out for about five months, and then I was put on the day shift. My mother, she would worry about me being on the road at midnight. She asked me to ask for a day job. I tried to explain to her that you had to wait your turn. I was at home one day when Mrs. Rodgers called me and asked me if I would like to come to days on second east. I was fortunate there. I didn’t have to ask,” she said.

Occasionally, she will work in the intensive care unit and when she does she works a 12-hour shift, which she says isn’t really all that bad.

Gramlin says she has enjoyed her time at the hospital.

“It’s like all jobs. There are things that you like and things you don’t, but I’ve enjoyed it,” she said.

During her 40-year tenure at T.J. Samson, Gramlin has worked in several areas, including critical care and surgery. Her current assignment is with cardiac rehabilitation, which happens to be her favorite above all the rest.

“Cardiac Rehab opened in February of 1992 and I relieved some in there and then they brought me in there full-time in 1993,” she said. “I’ve really enjoyed it.”

It’s the length of time she gets to spend with her patients that she likes best about working in cardiac rehab.

“Our patients usually come for about three months and you get to know them as a person. By the time they leave they are friends rather than patients. I’ve made a lot of friends,” she said.

Patients who come to cardiac rehab suffer from some type of heart ailment. Patients work out on treadmills and other exercise equipment in the unit while Gramlin and Anna Shaw, RN, monitor their heart rates, heart rhythm and blood pressures.

“It’s just a good monitored exercise program for people who have heart problems,” Gramlin said.

There have been times when Gramlin and Shaw have had emergencies in the cardiac rehab unit, but not very often.

“We’ve had maybe two episodes. We had to take one of them to the emergency room, but in all the years we’ve been here we’ve been fortunate that we’ve not had any problems,” she said.

Gramlin manages to stay calm during emergencies.

“I think you get a little bit nervous, but you have to look at the fact that person there is depending on you and you have to stay calm for them to save their life in some situations,” she said. “You wait until after it’s over before you get nervous. You have to sort of keep your cool and try to do what’s best for the patients.”

During the years she has been at T.J. Samson, Gramlin has witnessed many changes with the hospital, as well as the nursing profession.

“When I started here in 1969 our dress code was white uniforms, white hose, white shoes and caps. Now we’ve graduated to scrub suits and no caps and tennis shoes,” she said, adding she prefers what she wears to work these days to what she wore in the 1960s.

At one time nurses distributed all medications to patients. They used a small tray with cards listing the types of medication and the dosage each patient was to receive and would go from room to room.

“Now they have what they call a Pyxis machine,” she said. “The medicines are in it. You go up and punch it in with a computer. That’s a little easier.”

Nurses in the late 1960s also used pen and paper to make notes regarding patients’ recovery.

“Now we have what they call WOWS, which are work stations on wheels, which are computers that can go to the areas where they are working. It’s just a lot of things that have changed over the years,” she said.

Gramlin has also seen a lot of changes in the hospital. One of them being the location of the hospital’s entrance. The hospital has two entrances that are often referred to as being the front of the hospital. Both face North Race Street, but one is newer than the other. Those who have worked at T.J. Samson for several years refer to the original front entrance to the hospital as the “old front” and the new entrance as the “new front.”

“I get people coming in and when you get ready to dimiss them we will ask them, ‘Are you parked at the old front or the new front?’” she said “You just sort of describe it to people as the new front or the old front.”

Gramlin has also seen a lot of technology come to T.J. Samson and she is always impressed by the fact that her hometown hospital has much of the same technology that other hospitals in large towns have.

She is also proud of the various types of doctors the hospital has on staff.

“We’ve just been blessed in our doctors,” she said. “We’ve got some good doctors. We would like to have some more. It’s just a good hospital.”

Gramlin praised other employees at the hospital.

“We have a lot of nice people here. We’ve lost some. We’ve seen a lot of them come and a lot of them go. Mrs. Rodgers is just amazing. She’s still going strong,” she said.

Recently, one of Gramlin’s fellow coworkers visited the cardiac rehab unit to work out on a treadmill.

“She’s a good nurse and a good person,” said Barbara Cook, of Hiseville. “I’m glad to have known her all this time.”

Shaw said she has enjoyed working with Gramlin.

“We’ve had some good times,” Shaw said, adding that when Gramlin challenges her younger nurses to do a task they would do their best to show her they could get the job done. “We’ve had some big times.”

When Gramlin isn’t working at the hospital, she’s helping her husband, Dennis, out on the farm. The couple raise beef cattle, and Gramlin said she enjoys sharing stories about the cows with her patients.

Gramlin has enjoyed her career as a nurse, but said she is looking forward to retirement.

“You’ve got to like what you’re doing or you can’t stay in one place for as long as I have,” she said. “I’ve never had any desire to go any other place. This is home. I started out here in 1969 and if the good Lord is willing I will probably end my nursing career here.”