Alaska Nurses Association News  

This month’s winner of the drawing at the PRN General Membership meeting was Lorayne Embretson.

She left LaCrosse, Wisconsin to drive the Alaska Highway in 1974. The plan was to drop off a med student in Kenai, camp a bit and return to the Midwest where she grew up.  (Like so many other Alaskan transplants) Instead she began working at Providence in the four bed ICU just as Dr VonHipple was planning his first open heart surgery.  Lorayne met her military husband in Alaska. They briefly moved outside for a few years until her husband’s discharge from the Army. Lorayne worked in a nursing home in Colorado Springs and as a Director of Nursing in a nursing home in Iowa.

Lorayne and her husband returned to Anchorage in 1979 and raised their two wonderful daughters in Anchorage.  At Providence, Lorayne worked in Med-Surg and the Burn Unit for a short time. She found her home in the Emergency Department where Lorayne worked for thirty years and loved it.  In 2009, she transferred to the Ambulatory Service Unit (ASU) and worked on the Epic project for the ASU.

We thank Lorayne for the work she and all the staff RN’s have done to make our transition to the EPIC EMR as “smooth” as possible for our patients and us.  Lorayne returned to ASU (possibly with a few gray hairs) where she continues to work full time.   Lorayne stated, “I am grateful for what the PRN bargaining unit has done for Providence nurses. PRN continues to strive to improve working conditions and address patient safety issues in the hospital Thank you PRN”. 

The leadership of PRN, and your union, thank Lorayne for her dedication and service to the profession of nursing. She is a strong advocate for our profession and the patients we serve. She truly has dedicated her career to speaking up to improve systems that require input from nurses with a high level of critical thinking. She is a great role model for the newer generation of nurses entering our workforce.  This gift certificate is a small token of thanks for continuing to be a great union member for the Providence Registered Nurses (PRN) Bargaining Unit.

Thanks Lorayne.

Submitted by D Phillips, RN

AaNA-Labor Council Chair