Nearly 40 years on the local healthcare front lines - what Gardner native will remember

After nearly four decades of service with Heywood Healthcare, Tina Griffin is reflecting on a career full of memorable experiences, proud accomplishments, and a well-earned sense of pride in caring for her community.

Griffin, a Gardner native, recently announced her decision to retire from the healthcare group that she said had become her “family” over the past 38 years.

“I’m of retirement age and I have four grandchildren that I just can’t wait to spend more time with,” she said. “I will be nice to have that extra time to spend with them. (My husband, Patrick, and I) will be traveling a little bit and golfing.”

Studied nursing as a stay-at-home mother

Griffin was already married and had a child when she decided to pursue a career in healthcare in the 1980s. A stay-at-home mom living in Northfield at the time, Griffin said she began taking night classes at Greenfield Community College, where after two years of study she was accepted into the nursing program.

“At the time, I was a few months pregnant, and we were also moving from Northfield back to Gardner, so I was lucky enough to transfer and get into the Mount Wachusett Community College program,” she said.

Upon graduating from MWCC in May of 1986, Griffin began her career in healthcare as a medical/surgical nurse at Heywood Hospital.

“My first job was on the second floor – it was called Favor 2, and it was a medical/surgical floor, and I was working 16 hours a week,” she said. “One day during the week and every other weekend. It was just the right number of hours because I was raising small children, but it did give me time to pursue my career.”

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Griffin said her most vivid memory of those early days was the amount of time a nurse could spend with each patient during a hospital stay.

“Back then, if someone had an appendectomy, they were in the hospital for at least a week,” she said. “We had a lot of time to spend with the patients. We were busy, but you felt you had that extra time to sit and chat with someone who needed it. Now, it’s a same-day or overnight procedure.”

Griffin remembers Heywood as a small-town hospital

Griffin said she enjoyed the early days of her career when Heywood was known as a small-town hospital.

“I was caring for my community and caring for my family members, and it was just a very welcoming environment. It was a good hospital with a great reputation, and I just absolutely loved it,” she said. “And it was very close to my home."

A broad and varied career

Griffin’s passion for healthcare and her desire to learn and grow is evident from her lengthy resume. While at Heywood, she worked in the Emergency Department, ICU, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Hospice, and Oncology. She also worked for the Gardner Visiting Nurses Association, UMass-Health Alliance, and the South Shore Hospital, all while working as a per diem at Heywood. She gave back to her profession by teaching didactics and clinicals to second-year nursing students at MWCC and Greenfield Community College.

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Griffin also found time to continue her education. She obtained a bachelor and master's of science degree in nursing and obtained a doctorate from the University of Miami.

The pinnacle of Griffin’s career came when she was named the COO and vice president of Patient Care Services for Athol Hospital, while maintaining her role as Pain and Palliative Care consultant.

Finding herself drawn to the field of hospice, Griffin said she found inspiration while working with Dr. Marcia Liepman, who Griffin said was “ahead of her time” when it came to pain control.

Pioneer in pain management control

“I learned so much from her,” Griffin said. “We would go into homes together, we would be hanging drips, which is almost unheard of to help people die comfortably. She always told me, for a patient to die, they have to be comfortable. And I soon realized there was a large knowledge deficit among nurses and physicians in the area as far as pain management. And I thought that if I wanted my patients to be comfortable, then I need to learn everything I can.”

After taking any available courses, attending seminars, and reading every book she could get her hands on regarding pain management, Griffin found herself something of an expert on end-of-life care. Recognizing her passion for the subject, hospital officials tapped Griffin to head up Heywood’s first pain consultative service and lead a pain management task force in 1999.

In 2012, Griffin joined Athol Hospital as an oncology nurse practitioner and director. A few years later, she was named chief nursing officer, a title she retained until her retirement.

“It was a great way to end my career, if you will,” she said. “When I was asked to take the role as chief nurse, I really didn’t know what to expect. I did not have a mentor so I figured it out with the help of everyone else here.”

As she prepares to step away from her career in healthcare, Griffin said she will miss all of the colleagues she met along the way.

“They are what made it fun to come to work every day, and so it wasn’t really a job for me,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Heywood Healthcare Chief Nursing Officer Tina Griffin retires