Career change: Having recently retired from 20 years of aged care nursing, Jan Boyle will offer a funeral celebrant service to the Kyabram region.
High achievers in life have a common personality trait — rarely are they satisfied — hence the retirement of long-time Kyabram Director of Nursing Jan Boyle was rather short lived.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The nurse of five plus decades completed a Funeral Celebrant Course in January, less than a year after she finally retired from working in aged care facilities as a 75-year-old.
An understanding nature, history of caring for the ill and working closely with their families to provide the necessary care made the transition into the celebrant’s role a comfortable decision for the long-time Kyabram resident.
“I’ve been considering this role for for some time” she said, of her change of career.
“I’ve often thought I’d like to do this when I retired.”
After attending a funeral for one of the residents she had cared for, she approached the attending funeral celebrant and asked for some information.
And she hasn’t looked back.
“Retirement can leave you a little flat after 56 years in the nursing profession,” she said.
“In the initial stages I started to write a children’s picture book, which is also something I had always wanted to do.
“This has been shelved for the present, but hopefully it will be resurrected one day.
“Caring, empathy, compassion and understanding are essential skill sets necessary to enter the nursing profession.
“Having worked in the aged care sector these skills become more defined and developed as you are dealing with people at the end of their lives and death and dying are very much part of this process,” she said
Jan said she hadn’t always been “comfortable’’ with death, in fact, the death of a six- year-old from a brain tumour remains with her to this day.
This occurred during her four years as the charge nurse of the Orthopaedic/Neurology Unit at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, and had a profound effect on her. She remains in contact with the parents to this day. It was sometime after that Jan chose a career change
Jan arrived in Kyabram in July 1979 having accepted the role as “Matron”, later known as director of nursing.
“I was there until the end of 2000, then transferred into aged care, working at Tongala,” she said.
Her last seven years having been spent at Bupa in Echuca.
“Unfortunately aged care has suffered dramatically during the last 10 years, with care declining and a seemingly inability to do anything about it, a very sad situation ” Jan said.
The Epworth trained nurse was given the title of being the youngest matron appointed in Victoria in the early 1970s when she took on this role at Lismore and District Hospital in Western Victoria, she was in her early 20s
She was a key contributor to the major renovations to Kyabram Hospital during the 1990s.
Jan said she felt like she still had something to give, hence the decision to become a funeral celebrant.
Jan said building an incredible rapport with residents and their families are skills she could apply in transitioning and helping people through the period of death and dying.
“Both my parents have died, death is never easy.”
Jan can be contacted on 0429 336 615 or through Kyabram’s Clive Coventry Funerals on 5852 1619.
Nursing days: Jan Boyle, the nurse, worked with children in the early stages of her career and finished in aged care. She is now moving into funeral celebrancy.
20°C