LA GRANDE — Sarah Rankin’s career in La Grande started and ended with spinach.

“I started working in the spinach fields as a young woman,” Rankin said. “You didn’t make a whole lot of money, you got sunburned.”

She credited her cousin, who worked as an aide at the former St. Joseph Hospital in La Grande, with her change in career path. The cousin suggested Rankin come take a class so she also could work there.

“It seemed like what I should do for a career — what God had called me. You know, you pray about ‘what are you going to do with your life,’ so I’m glad I chose nursing,” Rankin said.

When St. Joseph closed its doors, Rankin made the move to the town’s other hospital, Grande Ronde. She remembered her first day. Unfortunately, she said, some of the aides working at Grande Ronde weren’t welcoming of the aides from St. Joseph at the beginning.

“It just was another opportunity for God to let them see that I was here to be a help — not a hindrance,” she said.

And that’s exactly what she did for the next 51 years at Grande Ronde Hospital, until she retired in early January. After working as a nurse aide for the first three years of her career at GRH, Rankin furthered her education and became a board certified medical surgical registered nurse.

Laughter and listening

GRH’s Medical Surgical Nurse Manager Molly Gornowicz said patients and their families commonly called out the difference that Rankin made during their stay at the hospital. She said Rankin’s children told her people often would come up to them in public to share how much they love and appreciate their mother.

“I’m a servant … and I’m here to glorify God. When I take care of my patients, I want that to come out. And I think it does,” Rankin said.

Gornowicz said Rankin was well known her love, her ability to hustle, and her laugher, which made people smile.

“It makes patients smile. We smile,” Gornowicz said. “ She brings laughter, she brings love.”

Many of Rankin’s fellow staff called her mother or nana because she takes care of everyone. Rankin urged the next generation to listen to their patients and to go for their dreams.

“ Listen to your patients. They can give you a lot of wisdom about how to take care of them,” she said.

Times are changing

Rankin said she has seen the health care field change “tremendously” over the course of her tenure. She calls herself a “bedside nurse” and feels physical touch is an important part of health care.

This was especially difficult during the coronavirus pandemic.

“ Oh my Lord, that was terrible because you couldn’t touch, you couldn’t hug,” she said. “I am a hugger and I am a toucher. I think that that is a very important part of health care that has taken a back seat.”

Rankin almost retired during the pandemic — in part because she herself got really sick with COVID-19. But when someone in her family suggested she could retire, she realized she wasn’t ready. She had a goal and she was going to meet it.

“ I wanted to work until I was 70. And I met that goal,” Rankin said. “I think I’ve worked the longest of any nurse here at Grand Ronde Hospital.”

She also is ready to retire because of another “big pendulum shift” within the medical field. Rankin said she feels health care has shifted to have more of a focus on computers and she herself is not a “computer clicker.”

Rankin tearfully shared an experience she had with a patient who was bleeding and needed additional surgery.

“He looked at me and he said, ‘You are the first nurse that’s come in here and actually looked at me and not had their nose in the computer.’ That is what breaks my heart in nursing,” she said.

Next steps

On Rankin’s last day she brought a potluck to feed everyone and send them home with lots of food. She brought a breakfast casserole, cake, bread and, of course, spinach dip.

Rankin may be retiring from Grande Ronde Hospital, but that doesn’t mean she’s quite done with nursing. She is considering doing a mission trip before her license expires.

She also said she plans to spend more time with her family. Rankin said her children and grandchildren have a lot of plans for her retirement — starting with a family trip in April to Disneyland.