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Nurses Plan Trip To Children's Home

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By LAURA CONE

The Sun

Published: December 31, 2008

They aren't part of a national organization but they have lived and worked all over the country.

Some members of the Sun City Center Registered Nurses Club, which is one of the 110 clubs sponsored by the SCC Community Association, continue to work in hospitals or in clinics. Even the retired nurses still work, only now as volunteers.

Jan Shangraw, the president of The Sun City Center Registered Nurse Group, has been a member of club for 10 years.

"We do a field trip every year," Shangraw said. "This year we are going to the Tampa Bay Children's Home for abused children who are waiting to go into foster homes."

The tour of the Children's Home will take a half hour and is followed by a boxed lunch.

In addition to their Jan. 8 field trip, members of the club often meet to volunteer for the blood pressure clinic on the first and third Mondays of the month from 9 to 11 a.m. in the Florida Room.

"We are all registered nurses so we have all gone through the same type of training," Shangraw said. "We have branched out into multi types of nursing. We have some Ph.D.s who were hospital supervisors or surgical or psychiatry nurses. It's a very broad career. There are so many areas you can take off into. We have a lot of school nurses."

Shangraw worked in intensive care as a surgical nurse in Hartford, Conn. She started her training as a nurse after graduating from high school. She said the group is a social outlet, but is also educational for nurses. Many of the speakers during their meetings the first Thursday of the month talk about advances in medicine and changes in the nursing field.

"We have been in a hospital situation all of our lives," she said. "When you retire you just want to still be part of that. You want to communicate with other nurses. Nurses have a lot in common."

Anise Tuma of Kings Point, a member of the club for two years, serves as secretary of the club. She served as a nurse for 22 years in Minnesota.

"I am a retired nurse and I just wanted to be with other nurses," Tuma said. "We have programs where we have speakers as well an occasional tour."

Tuma said the group collected toys for the Toys for Tots program.

"We had a good turn out. We also collect the box tops for Shriner's Hospital," she said.

Those who wish to participate in the trip to Tampa Bay Children's Home should meet the bus in the SCC Library parking lot on the north side at 8:45 a.m. The bus leaves at 9 a.m. and returns at 1:30 p.m. Cost is $12 and should be paid in advance to Linda Langlois at (813) 634-3250.

Editor Laura Cone may be reached at lcone@mediageneral.com.

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