Arlington Hts. nurse touts personal side of her career.(Special Section)

Say what you will about the changing nature in the healthcare industry right now. One thing registered nurse Kathy Lannon knows for sure: She wouldn't exchange her job for anything."There's so much flexibility and a wide variety of opportunities in nursing right now," says Lannon, an Arlington Heights resident who works at Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview.

Within the field there is hospital-based nurses, clinic-based nurses, visiting nurses, industrial nurses, as well as nurse educators and administrators. Lannon can determine the days and even shifts she works. It allows her to combine her role as a mother keeping up with four active children with her nursing career. Lannon ended up following her mother and aunts into the nursing profession, but she was drawn to the role for more reasons than that.

"I liked the science, and I saw myself as a nurturing person rather than a number cruncher," Lannon says.The same things drive her today, she says, adding: "There's a great need for bedside nurses, as opposed to the high-end administrative nurses."Lannon honed her skills at Bradley University in Peoria, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in nursing. Right out of school, in 1979, she began working at Evanston Hospital, the parent hospital of Glenbrook Hospital.

When her second child was born in 1988, she went to a part-time position, putting in roughly 20 hours a week. She now serves on the resource team, helping to cover staff needs when there are a large number of acutely ill patients on a certain floor.
Lannon never knows her floor until the morning she reaches the hospital. Once again, she likes the diversity in her job, and it forces her to keep her skills fresh.

"I find it both challenging and stimulating to work on a variety of floors," she says. "I could be helping people to walk with crutches on the orthopedic floor, or teaching people how to change dressings on the surgical floor. It varies every day."The one area she doesn't work in is the critical care units. Another resource team helps to staff intensive care units. Lannon says most of the incoming nurses at Glenbrook Hospital have their bachelor of science degree.