Celebrating a Legacy: Inaugural Janet Andrus Nursing Scholarship Award Ceremony Held at UPMC Haven Place
By Emily Wright
LOCK HAVEN– The UPMC Haven Place Senior Community hosted the Inaugural Janet Andrus Nursing Award Ceremony Wednesday afternoon, where two future nursing students were awarded scholarship funding to assist with the cost of their education. The ceremony was held in the recreation room, where Janet’s friends, family, and a few Haven Place residents gathered to honor her for her work and mentorship during her time in the healthcare field.
Janet Andrus graduated from the Lock Haven School of Nursing, formerly located on Susquehanna Avenue, in 1953. A total of 18 nurses graduated alongside her that year. Andrus later fell in love with a soldier and traveled the world alongside him while providing her expertise as a nurse to individuals along the journey.
Andrus later went to work at the Lock Haven Hospital when it opened its acute/extended care facility. During her time there, many nurses claim that Andrus acted as their mentor, as she had touched their lives with her supportive, encouraging, and healing nature. One of those nurses is Susan (Sue) Packer, RN/Assistant Coordinator at UPMC Haven Place, who founded the Janet Andrus Nursing Award.
According to Packer, the Lock Haven Hospital was often referred to as “Pennsylvania’s Lifeline” during the era that Andrus worked there as a nurse. “Janet was the lifeline for our residents and for our staff,” Packer said during the ceremony. “She inspired us to be better nurses and always had an encouraging word to say. We were happy, we loved coming to work, and I learned so much from Janet,” she said.
Packer highlighted some of the main points that Andrus taught all the nurses she’d taken under her wing at the hospital.
First and foremost, Andrus always taught them, “Put God first”. “In everything Janet did, it was evident that she put God first. Her compassion was so strong that when she touched your hand, you just knew that everything was going to be alright. She truly was a servant of God,” Packer said with heavy emotion in her voice.
Second, Andrus emphasized the importance of being present and always showing up for work no matter what. “Janet did that every day– she was accountable, and she never called off,” Packer said.
Third was honesty and integrity, something Andrus prioritized in order to build trust with patients and residents. “She followed the nursing code of ethics in her every move,” Packer emphasized.
Andrus also impressed upon other nurses the importance of getting to know each and every patient under their care. “Janet did her rounds every day, and everyone knew her. She was so sharp that she could walk in a room and automatically know what was going on with a patient,” Packer recounted.
Packer emphasized that Andrus always strived to be a team player, a moral code that she impressed upon other nurses in the unit. “She taught us to never let our coworkers fall. She never let us sink; we’ve all faced challenges, but Janet was always present, and we always knew she was right beside us providing support,” she said.
Education was of high importance to Andrus, and she encouraged other nurses to be like a sponge and soak up every opportunity to learn. Many years ago, Andrus told Packer that at the time she wanted to enter nursing school, money for tuition was an issue, but she found a way and has put high value on education ever since. “She was a big promoter of education and continues that today,” Packer said.
“Janet always taught us that when you reach the top, reach back and take the hand of another person and lift them up,” Packer said. “Janet has exemplified that throughout her career, her life, to me, and many others, and she is continuing to do so through this scholarship award. Her goal is to break down the barrier of lack of funding for nursing school, and when asked ‘why do you have an interest in this scholarship award?’, she said, ‘We’re doing it for the future of nursing.’”
Although scholarship funds were initially believed to only be awarded to one future nursing student, Amanda Gresh, nursing home administrator at UPMC Haven Place, presented two future nurses with scholarship funds at the ceremony: Hailey Risley and Rayne Herritt.
Risley was awarded $500.00 to further her nursing education. She currently works at UPMC Haven Place and plans to use her scholarship funds to attend the nursing program at Commonwealth University-Lock Haven.
Herritt was awarded $150.00 toward her future nursing education. She is a senior in high school who also juggles her position at UPMC Haven Place in addition to The Shore Diner, where she waitresses.
Andrus’ daughter, Susan Powlus, provided a few brief statements during the ceremony. “I’ve been the beneficiary of one of the best healers there is for my entire life,” she said. “I am so very blessed to have my mom. She is a wonderful 93-year-old who is sharper than I’ll ever be. She loves the Lord; that’s what she taught me and what she wants to share with everybody else,” Powlus shared.
Andrus’ granddaughter, Shanna Powlus-Wheeler, a poet and published author, was present at the ceremony to honor her grandmother and read a poem she’d authored.
Shanna shared that aside from being a devoted registered nurse for many years, Andrus is also a poet. “She inspired me at a young age to dabble in poetry and eventually study it formally in college and graduate school,” she said.
Shanna shared that a year into her marriage, she and her husband suffered the first of three miscarriages, resulting in an emergency D&C surgery. She said that over the following week, she felt as though she was in a strange state of shock and grief, which compelled her to go visit with her grandparents because she “knew instinctively that “Grammy” could always make her feel better” as she had done for her own children, grandchildren, and many patients over the years.
Although Shanna and her grandmother didn’t speak directly about the miscarriage on the day she visited, Andrus provided her with the support she needed during that time. “That day, she gifted me with something that she said would ‘keep my hands busy’: an embroidery kit and pillowcases.” Shanna shared that she began to embroider flowers onto the pillowcases, and the project became one that she would take out and put away over the course of a few years. In the meantime, she began to write poems about her experience of having a miscarriage.
“I drafted a very rough poem about the time I spent with Grammy and the comfort she gave me, and like the embroidery project, I put the draft away,” she said.
Years later, Shanna finished embroidering both of the pillowcases her grandmother had gifted her, and she also finished writing the poem. She surprised Andrus with the embroidered pillowcases and the poem as a birthday present and also as an offering of thanks for having been her source of comfort and support during a time of need.
Shanna said that she then began to search for a place to publish the poem she’d written and learned through a friend that it could be published in The American Journal of Nursing. “I went through the tedious submission process and was thrilled to learn that my poem was accepted. When the poem was finally published, I surprised Grammy with a copy of that issue of the journal,” she said. “She surprised me in return by telling me that from the time she was a young nurse, she had subscribed to that very journal,” Shanna said while holding Andrus’ first copy of The American Journal of Nursing.
Upon learning that her grandmother had been subscribed to the same publication she had gotten her poem published, Shanna shared that the “perfect circle of joy” had been created. “Just like her many poems, in mine, I tried to capture and preserve a significant period of time and a specific person. This person, Janet Andrus, is the most comforting and compassionate person I know,” she said. “I am blessed beyond measure to call this nurse-poet my grandmother and comforter, and I am proud to see a nursing scholarship established in her name to support future comforters to come.”
Shanna read her poem during the ceremony, titled “Aftercare: For Janet Andrus”:
“At your table of mercy, you fed me watermelon
and warm tapioca fluffed with egg whites.
You gave me an embroidery kit and pillowcase,
that I might stitch flowers into my dreams.
At your table of mercy, I pulled needle and thread
through fabric with ease; I fixed each mis-stitch.
My womb having abandoned its ornate project,
I reclaimed consent with the grip of my hands.
At your table of mercy, I found a pattern for grief.
To make was to mourn what could not be made.”
-Written by Shanna Powlus Wheeler, 2017.
Michelle Dush-McCain from PA State Representative Stephanie Borowicz’s office attended the ceremony and presented Andrus with a certificate of recognition. Andrus was also given yet another nursing pin in recognition of her work and the mark she’s left on many nurses and patients alike.
Although Nurse Janet Andrus did not provide any statements during the ceremony, through teary eyes, her sincere appreciation and gratitude to those in attendance and her hope for the futures of the two scholarship recipients were palpable.
