REPORT: October/November 2006

Father-daughter team attends NYSNA Convention

by Mark Genovese

A new tradition started this October for the Williams family of Pittsford: NYSNA’s annual convention.

The dad, Ken, is a night charge nurse in an inpatient psychiatric unit at Rochester General Hospital and a member of NYSNA’s Expanded Council on Nursing Practice. Ken says he came to nursing as a “second -- no, actually fourth,” career.

The daughter, Dagny, is a sophomore at St. John Fisher College and will enter the school’s nursing program next year. She currently works part time at Rochester General as a patient care technician on a medical unit.

At first Ken was on the path to becoming a veterinarian, caring for farm animals while in agricultural high school. After graduating from college, he worked as a lab technician. He then turned his attention toward business, starting as an accounting clerk and working his way up to senior management, earning an MBA along the way.

After restructuring, Ken said he spent eight years “doing poorly” in sales. He was taking care of his mother-in-law at home when she said: “You’re good at this. You ought to be a nurse.” He returned to college and earned a BS in nursing while working full-time nights.

Another influence was his late wife, Charlee, who was also a nurse. “She introduced me to NYSNA and helped convince me to get involved and contribute to my profession,” he said. “She motivated everyone around her to reach higher and achieve excellence.”

Dagny also cited Charlee as an influence. Noting that she’s always found health care fascinating, Dagny said she wanted to be a brain surgeon when she was a child. She finally decided to become a nurse after she accompanied her dad to the nursing home on a “take your daughter to work day” while in middle school. This fall, Ken convinced Dagny to join him at convention.
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This convention helped me to get a different view of what nursing is about,” she said. “I received a lot of additional education that I haven’t experienced yet in the classroom — especially the sessions on issues like medical errors and diabetes.”

“I’m extremely proud of how Dagny has shown an interest in nursing,” Ken said. “And in how she is gaining the wisdom to understand the larger issues.” Ken says nurses have an opportunity to make a difference — for their individual patients through their daily practice, and for their peers and the profession with NYSNA. His focus with the Nursing Practice Council has been on reducing violence against nurses.

So who’s the better nurse in the family? “Dad still does the majority of the teaching,” Dagny said. “He’s a good role model — in nursing and in life.”