Recognition Susan Wills Celebrates 40 Years at Polk Medical Center
Those early days of nursing were a far cry from what they are today.
If you had known Susan Wills as a little girl, you would never have guessed that one day she would be celebrating her 40th anniversary as a registered nurse at Polk Medical Center. “When I was a little girl I would almost faint at the sight of blood,” Willis recalls, a trait that made her doubt her calling to the profession. “My father became very ill and was a patient at Polk General Hospital. Every day I would visit with him I would watch the nurses and doctors care for my father. Each day I had a longing in my heart to be a nurse,” she said, although she wasn’t too sure about entering a role that would put her in regular proximity with blood. “My father was sick for a long time, and soon I knew nursing was my calling.” Willis was honored at Floyd’s annual Celebration of Service in 2017 for achieving 40 years of service at Polk Medical Center. Missy Puckett, a former co-worker who now works in Nurse Recruitment and Retention, said Willis is one of her mentors. “Susan is a wonderful caregiver who has been instrumental in my growth as a nurse,” Missy said. “She’s a pioneer in our area and a real role model for nurses who are just beginning their career.” After high school, Willis applied and was accepted into the nursing school at Paulding Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Georgia. She started class with an armload of books and a one-year-old in tow. “I had no idea how hard this journey would be,” she said. “However, I didn't falter. I finished the program, passed my boards and went to work at Polk General Hospital, the hospital where she was born and where she watched other nurses care for her father. “Since I was born at Polk General Hospital, I often say I just stayed. When I went for my interview, I was so excited to get the job I didn’t even ask how much the salary was.”
“When I started working, we had metal bedpans and call lights that would show the room number on a board. We had no phones, TVs or bathrooms in the patient rooms. There were no outpatient procedures or surgeries, and patients would often come to the hospital for a week of rest. “Nursing has certainly seen many changes during my career. We did everything on paper, now we do everything on computers. We had X-ray films. Now X-rays are digital. When I started nursing, there was no ambulance service. Local businesses owned and operated ambulances, most of the time with little to no lifesaving equipment.” Over the course of her career, Willis said she has been a part of important firsts that helped her to see just how life-changing the role of a nurse can be. “I was a part of the very first tPA (a blood clot- dissolving drug) being given at Polk. This was given to a patient having a heart attack. I felt like I was a part of a miracle. Now patients really do receive miracles with open-heart surgeries. Most any surgery can be performed as an outpatient procedure instead of a two-week hospital stay.” Although Willis has worked in almost every aspect of nursing, she has worked for the past 25 years in the Emergency Department. When she first started there, there was no in-house physician. Nurses would triage patients and reach out to an on-call doctor to get orders for treatment. Today, the Polk Emergency Department is staffed with a physician around the clock and a nurse practitioner for 12 hours each day. Willis said she only sees patient care improving and envisions a day when computers will become even more integrated into caring for patients, especially those in rural areas.
Her starting pay was $1.72 per hour.
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