A true Nightingale

By Dean Shipley

Staff Writer

Even after 25 years as a nurse, Marilyn Nicol R.N., has not lost her zest for the profession. Nicol’s zest and enthusiasm for her work on the obstetrics floor which her co-workers felt was the reason to nominate her the Nightingale award for Union County Memorial Hospital. The award is given to the nurse whose excellence of service and for the contribution to the physical and mental health care of their patients.

The committee, after reviewing that nomination, agreed. Nicol, honored by her co-workers’ nomination, mutually admires them and called them “wonderful.”

She says very much the same about her 22 years of work in obstetrics. She has hands-on sharing of the joy of new lives being brought into the world.

“It’s usually a happy occasion to see parents all excited and the siblings,” Nicol said in a phone interview. “It’s a pleasant experience and a good place to work.”

Nicol had worked with her husband, Russ on their dairy farm near Plain City. When her daughter Kim, began her nursing studies and then began to work as a nurse, she shared stories with her mother.

“It sounded interesting,” Nicol said. So she enrolled in a course to become a licensed practical nurse, LPN. She became an LPN in 1984, then became a registered nurse, R.N., in 1997.

“I’ve never regretted it,” said Nicol, 70.

As long as she’s healthy she plans to continue working full time.

The medical profession has extended to the third generation as her granddaughter, Amber Murphy is a medical doctor, M.D., and in her residency at Riverside Methodist Hospital.