National Nurses Week holds extra meaning for three women at Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Spectrum Health.
Christina Harms, RN, is a labor and delivery nurse at the health system, following in the same footsteps as her mother, Sue Hoekstra, RN, and grandmother, Mary Lou Wilkins, RN, reports ABC News. The three generations of women all work — or worked — as labor and delivery and postpartum nurses, with their combined careers at the health system spanning nearly 83 years.
"When I started working at Spectrum [Health] I thought, 'This is incredible,'" Ms. Harms told ABC News. "My grandmother worked here and my mom worked here and now I work here and we're all doing the same care for moms and babies."
Ms. Wilkins started her nursing career in 1949. She worked with her daughter, Ms Hoekstra, at Spectrum for nearly a decade before retiring in 1991.
"It was fun because I could tell right away, especially when I was working with her, that this was her real niche," Ms. Wilkins told ABC News. "It was rather unusual, the fact that we were able to work together in the same unit, a mother and daughter."
Now, Ms. Hoekstra works day shifts in the postpartum department, while her daughter, Ms. Harms, works nights in the labor and delivery department.
"It is so incredible that all three of us have helped build so many families, and we have such a passion for these moms and their babies," Ms. Harms told ABC News. "We love taking care of them."
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