Veteran Nurse Ruthlin Seymour Looks Back on a Career Dedicated to Helping Others
"What is a nurse [anyway]? Or, who is a nurse? A nurse is just a caring person. You only do for people what they're not able to do for themselves, it's very simple."

MIAMI, FL, December 20, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ --Being the second of eight children, Ruthlin Seymour learned how to care for others right in her home in Kingston, Jamaica. From an early age, she knew that she wanted to be a nurse, so she took the knowledge she gained and migrated at the age of 22 to England, where she attended nursing school. With her parents' encouragement and immense drive to be of service to others, she successfully completed training at Towers Hospital (Humberstone, Leicester) to become a registered mental nurse. It was the beginning of a long, prodigious and international career. As she told Cambridge Who's Who in a recent interview, "Nursing was the only profession I chose, and I did it to the best of my ability."

Ms. Seymour was offered a position as a staff nurse at Towers Hospital while she pursued her general training at Hackney General Hospital (London), which would have caused her to return to Towers for at least three years immediately following general training. She respectfully declined, because she envisioned the world as her oyster, eager to see as much of it as possible while practicing. At this point, she vowed to be thoughtful and kind to the folks she met along the way. She continued her nursing education at Hackney General Hospital and graduated as a state-registered nurse. A supervisor commented, "We are training British nurses not for Britain, but for the world," which reflected her desire to provide skilled care wherever it was needed.

Ms. Seymour, who claims she's "never heard a cry [she] couldn't answer," knew that she would be able to function effectively as a nurse in any part of the world and decided to continue her career at a hospital in Essondale, British Columbia, Canada, where she gained further experience. Her professionalism, caring attitude and alertness carried her through to the Ontario Hospital in London, Ontario, Canada. In America, Ms. Seymour worked for the New Jersey Board of Nursing at St. Michael's Hospital, the East Orange General Hospital (N.J.) and then the New York State Board of Nursing before returning to Jamaica. In 1976, she left Jamaica for Florida, where she continued serving in various capacities until her retirement in 2008.

According to Ms. Seymour, "A human being is a human being in any language," and psychiatric nursing helped her to respect individuals at their most basic levels before attempting to treat or cure their ailments. She knew that in order to effectively heal one's physical pain, she first had to understand their mind and personality. Her specialty in mental health nursing enabled her to accomplish this in all of her posts. While many joys have come to Ms. Seymour throughout her 51-year career, none have been as rewarding as the comments of her colleagues, some of whom have requested that she be their caretaker if they were hospitalized. Even in her retirement, she remains tireless in her efforts to provide comfort and kindness to all within her care. Ms. Seymour summed up her profession in clear-cut terms. "I don't know if anyone can be a nurse, or if everyone would want to be a nurse, but what is a nurse [anyway]?" she said. "Or, who is a nurse? A nurse is just a caring person. You only do for people what they're not able to do for themselves, it's very simple."

Ruthlin Seymour may be reached via e-mail at ruthain@comcast.net.

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