Retired nurse goes back to work to help with COVID vaccinations

Saskatchewan’s plan when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccines has been to get as many doses as possible into as many arms as possible as quickly as possible — but an effort like that takes a veritable army of health-care workers.

That’s where people like Laurie Cole come in.

Cole spent more than 36 years as a nurse in Gainsborough, much of that in a managerial role. Cole retired eight years ago but has answered the call and will soon be coming out of retirement to help with COVID-19 vaccinations.

“We’re in this pandemic and if there’s something I can do, then I want to help with that,” said Cole.

She said she believes in vaccinations and their importance and wanted to help however she could to get people their shots.

Since she retired, Cole has been doing a lot of volunteering, but those opportunities have been fewer as the pandemic has gone on, and since she turned 65 in January.

But when she found out the province was looking for help, even from those retired as long as she’d been, she saddled up.

“I need to get out there and be helping people again,” she said. “I’m to the point where I’m getting kind of frustrated at not being able to see people.

“That’s where I get a lot of my day-to-day fulfillment, is helping other people and working with kids, choirs and different things that I haven’t been able to do.”

Cole is no stranger to vaccinations. Immunizations for staff were part of her job before she retired.

“I, at flu season every year, took the orientation to the new flu vaccine and gave the residents and staff their flu vaccinations,” said Cole.

She is also part of the lucky group in Saskatchewan who have already got their first COVID-19 shot. She lined up last week at the drive-through clinic in Regina.

“I wasn’t looking forward to sitting for four to six hours but when we went it was about an hour and a half from the time we got in the line until we had had my vaccination and sat in the parking lot for 15 minutes,” she said.

Cole said she likely would have been able to get a vaccine as part of her preparation to go back to work, but it was still a relief.

She’ll have to do a bit of training and orientation first, but Cole said she’ll be helping out at clinics in the Carlyle area.