Nurses Make a Difference was the theme of National Nurses Week 2024.

For Country Meadows Retirement Communities, the nurses on staff play an essential role in the lives of their residents and families. It is seen as a vocation. That spirit of helping and comforting others was recognized during a special high tea May 10.

Executive Chairman Michael Leader, who pronounced the invocation, explained to those present the important role nurses have in providing excellence in health care. Adding, at whatever stage they are in this profession, they can take “comfort in having the satisfaction in knowing the contributions they’ve made to the healing and helping of so many.”

Four nurses were honored for their work and dedication toward the residents of Country Meadows: Clinical Services Specialist Karen Geiser, R.N., Clinical Services Specialist Jessica Renford, R.N., Director of Nursing Christiana Mendez, L.P.N. and Assistant Director of Nursing Kim Pasquarello, L.P.N.

For the last 10 years, Geiser has been leading the nursing staff at Country Meadows. She is retiring in July after a 48-year career.

Although she takes comfort in knowing she has helped many, becoming a nurse was not part of her original plan. She wanted to be a teacher but during her sophomore year in high school, her grandfather became ill with cancer. Seeing the important role nurses play in the lives of those suffering from illness led to pursuing a different career path.

“Most of my career was spent in women’s services,” she explained.

However, it is her time at Country Meadows which has been the most rewarding to Geiser.

“This has by far been the best experience in nursing I’ve ever had. I couldn’t ask for a better place to work or vocation to have as my last role.”

One resident and former nurse present at the celebration was retired Capt. Judith Ann Hass Jackson.

Jackson became a nurse in 1964 and joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1967.

“I just wanted to do stuff for people, help someone. Be kind to people,” Hass said on why she went into nursing.

She met and married Army Officer Charles J. Jackson II, whom she met while working on the coronary ward of Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the time, Charles Jackson was recovering from injuries sustained in the Vietnam War.

They traveled to different parts of the country and South Korea before settling in Lower Macungie in 1985, after Jackson retired.

Jackson encourages young people to get a degree in nursing, saying, “If you like being around people, you’ll love it.”

High tea ended on an emotional note with Geiser reciting the Florence Nightingale Pledge to Country Meadows’ elderly residents she has cared for, and her fellow nurses from across the Lehigh Valley who came to the celebration.