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Susan Walsh, RN: Ketchikan Super Nurse

Susan Walsh, RN, loves doing what she does.  AaNA member Walsh is a labor and delivery nurse at Ketchikan General Hospital.  Walsh has worked OB since 2000.  In addition to assisting in the delivery of hundreds of babies, Walsh teaches childbirth education classes.

Susan Walsh grew up in the San Francisco Bay area of California.  She is a 1976 graduate of St. Pats School of Nursing in Polson, Montana.  As a new grad, in Montana, she worked peds, telephone triage, and maternal child health.  Over the years, she has worked every specialty except surgery.

Walsh first came to work in Ketchikan, Alaska in August, 1977. “I came during the pipe line days to seek ‘fame and fortune’.  As soon as I landed I went to work at the hospital as night supervisor and relief OB.  For my efforts, I got a whopping $7.00 an hour, much better than the $5.25 I got in Montana, stated Walsh when I interviewed her.  “I left briefly in 1978 ‘never to return’, but was back in short order”.    

When Walsh talks about her work as an OB nurse she gushes with enthusiasm, “We have a great hospital”, Walsh stated.  “KG is a great place to have a baby.  In addition to nursing, our OB nurses do the work of dulas.  RN’s do breastfeeding and lactation counseling.   I gravitated toward this field because the hospital respects the community standard. We don’t do factory styled deliveries.  Years ago, when I worked OB at a hospital in California, it felt more like working in a hatchery. Here, we are family centered and more like a birthing center.” 

Walsh has been a labor and delivery nurse, for eleven years, at Ketchikan General Hospital, but she spent over thirty years in family practice and in labor and delivery at Callisto Clinic with Dr. Tom Conley, and as relief at the hospital.  “Over the years, I’ve done everything at that hospital except surgery”.  My work is multi-generational.  I’ve had people say ‘you were there when I was born and now you are here as my son is born’.  It’s more than just the patient connection.  It’s the whole family - -moms, dad’s grandparents.” 

In addition to her nursing work, Walsh is very active in the Alaska Nurses Association, both on the professional side and in the union.  Currently, Walsh holds seats on both the AaNA Board of Directors and the AaNA Labor Council.  Walsh has also been Grievance Officer for nine years, since the first contract.  I asked Walsh how she juggles her roles as OB Team member and Grievance Officer.  Here’s what she had to say, “I like being the point person to get issues resolved amiably and quickly because there is no place for animosity.  We not only work together, but we see each other in the community. That’s how I approach my work as Grievance Officer.”  Also, Walsh explained, “that’s why there’s a ‘no strike’ clause in the union contract.  The nurses wanted it.  When we unionized, we didn’t want people in the community to think their health care might be in jeopardy.”

I asked Walsh if she thought unionization had made a difference.  Walsh responded “definitely, now we have consistency, disciplinary and hiring procedures that must be followed, bargained raises and a say about patient safety and care.   It’s been a good change for RN’s and managers.  I appreciated the AaNA members who held our hands all the way through the process.” 

Walsh’s activism goes beyond unionism.  She served on the school board and has been active in many progressive causes.  “The environment is my passion”, she stated.  “I am working for a sustainable future in everything I put my hand to.  Right now, I am working on a small community pea patch garden in town with a community green house.  It will be up be up and running by spring.”    I have a twenty-six acre homestead on another island.  I plan to create a full circle farm.  I will grow produce to sell in town.  This is not too far off.” 

Susan Walsh has one grown son.  She is married to Mike, a commercial skin diver and sawmill operator.  She enjoys outdoor activities including boating, hiking and organic gardening.  She has a cat, two large dogs and twenty chickens.  She dislikes housework and shoveling snow in a blizzard.  I asked Walsh when she might retire.  She responded, “When I don’t enjoy it anymore.  Right now, I enjoy it.  I am not bored.  Susan Walsh, RN is an AaNA Ketchikan super nurse.