A broken arm as a little girl was the start of an Arenzville resident’s path toward more than 40 years spent as a nurse at Passavant Area Hospital.
Barb Surratt, the patient care coordinator for Passavant’s pediatrics department, will retire after more than 40 years of service.
Surratt graduated from Passavant School of Nursing in 1972 — the school closed 10 years later — before she took on a full-time position with the hospital to fulfill her lifelong goal of being a nurse.
“I’ve always wanted to be a nurse,” she said. “I had a broken arm when I was about 5 and I kind of think that made (the path) more firm for me.”
As a child, Surratt, dressed in the traditional garb of nurses — a cape made by her mother — went about helping anyone who needed medical help, even the animals on her family’s farm.
Part of a deal between her father, herself and her siblings included raising a pig for market. If they could raise it until it was sold, they got to keep the money it brought in.
“There was a pig and his mother laid on him when he was little, so he was paralyzed in his hind legs,” Surratt said. “I would spend hours working its hind legs until it could walk again.”
Despite enjoying a 12-week course at the Milwaukee Children’s Hospital, a focus on pediatrics wasn’t Surratt’s first thought when she became a nurse, she said. When Passavant’s pediatrics department was created in the late 1970s, following the closure of Norris Hospital, she felt it was the right place for her.
Surratt has been the with Passavant’s pediatrics department ever since.
During her time there, things in the field have changed drastically, she said, listing everything from different technology to the decline of long-term stays because of at-home care.
But the people have always been the highlight of her job, she said.
“I’m going to miss the people, my co-workers, the patients and the families,” Surratt said.
Over time, Surratt has learned so much from the families that she helps serve, she said, adding that she loves educating them on health topics.
“There have been families that have been here that I really connected with and kept in contact with,” she said. “For some who stay longer, you get to know them and watch the family grow and you build good friendships there.”
While she said she’s going to miss the fast pace and the people, she knew it was time to retire.
“They say a person just knows when it’s time and it just feels like a good time to do it,” she said.
After retirement, Surratt said, she’ll get to spend more time with her husband, Ron, who retired two years ago. They plan to do some traveling and visit their grandchildren, especially those who are farther away, and maybe work on her gardening skills.
Surratt will retire on Jan. 2.
