A hospital is a community, especially in a small rural area where oftentimes it’s friends and neighbours who are in need of help. Like all living things, a hospital is composed of many parts, all working together (hopefully) for the greater good. Nurses are the organism’s hands and heart, responsible for much of the day-to-day operations while having an up-close and personal relationship with the people who walk or roll through the doors. 

Natalie Romain started her career in nursing at the Pontiac Hospital in May 1991, though she had spent some time during previous summers working as a ward aide to gain experience. 

This past Friday was her last day on the job, closing out a 35-year career as a nurse and manager, rising in 2024 to the rank of clinical administrative coordinator, one of the top jobs in the building.

Born and raised in Campbell’s Bay as an only child, Romain’s father worked for Hydro-Quebec, and her mother worked at the courthouse as a justice of the peace. She said that as early as she can remember, there’s only been one line of work that’s interested her.

“There’s two things that I really wanted, to become a mother and nursing,” she said. “I remember playing with my dolls, and my mom had gotten me a little kit with a stethoscope and a pretend thermometer and it was the only thing that I wanted to do.”

Upon graduation she left the area for Hull and spent the next three years studying nursing at the College de l’Outaouais.

She graduated in May 1991 and started full-time at the Pontiac Hospital just days later (she recalled that Joyce Hodgins was the director of nursing at the time). Her first shifts were nerve-wracking, but she learned her trade and built her confidence. 

“When I first started I didn’t sleep well for the first couple of months because I was always thinking, ‘Did I forget something important, am I going to get in trouble tomorrow?’” she said.

At the time, nurses were responsible for much more patient care, though Romain noted that in those days the hospital was fully staffed. She said that while the senior nurses took her under their wing, she also learned a lot from the ward aides and other support staff about how to act. 

“Back then the nurses used to do hygiene on the patients, we gave bed baths, today, well it might be a little different,” she said. “They showed me the importance of that too. They showed me how to be around the patients, to be professional because I was 21 when I started too, you know. I matured when I started working here with all these amazing people.”

She chose the specialization of obstetrics while in school and spent a good part of her career bringing a generation of Pontiacers into the world. 

“I’ve delivered quite a few babies, some with doctors, some without,” she said. “What’s funny now is that I see some of these babies who have babies of their own. People still come up to me with their kids who are kind of grown, and go, ‘Oh that was the nurse that was there.’ I find it pretty cool most of the time.”

While she really enjoyed delivering babies, she acknowledged things could get very intense, recalling a nugget of wisdom passed on to her by Dr. Thomas O’Neill.

“He was teaching on obstetrics, he said of all the places he’s worked, in the emergency, in the OR, the place that made him more nervous than anything else is the delivery room because you have two lives, the mom and the baby, and anything can go wrong just like that,” she said. “I always remembered that.”

Though she made efforts to complete her bachelor’s degree in nursing, life got in the way and she ended up about 10 credits short.

“I started to take courses online to get my bachelors, well, one thing led to another [ . . . ] I didn’t have the motivation to continue, I had my kids, I was working full-time,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know that. They assume, because I have this job, [that I have my] university [degree].”

‘We’ve seen our share of good and bad’

After working primarily in obstetrics for years, Romain became an assistant head nurse in 2013, a management position that came with many more responsibilities. She eventually rose further up the management chain in 2018, despite her lack of scholastic credentials. 

One of the things she said she enjoyed most as her seniority increased was sharing her knowledge with the younger nurses.

“That was very gratifying for me, I loved teaching the nurses in obstetrics, or just sharing some knowledge, that was some of my special moments,” she said.

Nicole Boucher-Larivière, the Pontiac territory director for the regional health authority CISSSO, has worked with Romain since she started as a physiotherapist in 1998. She said that Romain’s approachability is one of her biggest assets as both a nurse and a manager.

“She’s very present, so Nat’s at the hospital every morning bright and early before most of the staff come in to make sure she sees everybody, she walks through the hospital several times a day to make sure they see her,” she said. “I think her availability is something that everybody respected because they didn’t have any issues having access to her, and she knew what was going on because she was present walking through.”

Michel Fortin, a nurse at the hospital since 1995, came up working on the floor with Romain and said they’ve been through a lot over the course of more than 30 years of friendship (Romain referred to him as her brother from another mother).  

“You make ties with these people, you know, you live through things that are very not nice sometimes to see,” he said. “So you can actually chat with these people and you know they know what you’re talking about because they’ve lived it with you. Not just her, but we’ve seen our share of good and bad.”

Jennifer Paquette, Romain’s administrative assistant (or “right-hand woman” as she calls her) said she admired her down-to-earth nature. 

“She’s a very resilient woman who just goes with the flow, rolls with the punches, good times bad times, she just gets through it,” she said.

Romain’s mentor and close friend Gilbert Daoust, retired from the hospital in January 2024 after his own lengthy career and she took his role as clinical administrative coordinator. She said that he had been the one to encourage her to apply for a management position in the first place.

“I thought I was going to retire as assistant head nurse, that’s what I thought, until I was asked if I would be interested in taking a management job,” she explained. “I didn’t think I would get it, I really didn’t, because again I knew I don’t have my bachelors.”

She recalled Daoust fondly, pointing to a photo of him that sat prominently on a shelf in her office. 

“He’s the reason I am where I am today, because he had faith in me,” she said.

Boucher-Larivière said that the combined departure of such a dynamic pair in the span of a few years was difficult for the organization as a whole. 

“[Gilbert] passed away not long after he left, that was a hard blow for Natalie and that was a hard blow for the team,” she said. “And now to lose Natalie close to two years later is going to be hard for this team because they were the two pillars who worked together forever. They were an amazing duo.”

‘A special kind of person’

Romain said that while she would be hanging up her scrubs and manager’s blazer to spend more time with friends and family, she would be helping out on the boards of the Pontiac Community Hospital Foundation, the CLSC Foundation in Fort-Coulonge as well as with Les Amis du Manoir St-Joseph. 

The incoming clinical coordinator who will be stepping into Romain’s boots is Léon Lance, a manager at the long-term care facility in Mansfield (Manoir Sacré-Coeur) for the past eight years who was born and raised in Otter Lake. A nurse by training, Lance worked at the hospital originally as well as in home care for around a decade before moving to management. 

In preparation for the transition, Lance shadowed her on the job for her last four weeks, and said he was grateful for the wisdom he picked up. 

“We work in emergency settings so sometimes we don’t take the time to listen, but she told me that no, you have to take time to listen to your employees, to listen to your colleagues and support each other,” he said. “I find for me it was a valuable teaching because I want to do it right and we want to make sure the transition is as smooth as it can be.”

Boucher-Larivière said that she would be moving her office to the hospital to help with the transfer. Both she and Romain spoke highly of Lance’s skills. 

“He did an amazing job at the Manoir Sacré-Coeur the last few years,” Boucher-Larivière said. “He’s learned so much from managing there. I think he’s going to be able to bring that to the hospital. Maybe bring some new ideas which are always kind of nice. And it’s been great that he’s had a full month with Nat to be able to transfer a little bit of her knowledge.”

Her colleagues said that Romain’s enormous efforts over the years to build and nurture the team at the hospital will have a lasting impact. 

“I recognize the major influence she had on the system,” Lance said, highlighting her emotional intelligence and leadership skills. “I will do my best to measure up and  to make sure that I’m up to par. I do have an extremely good local team as well, I think that should be mentioned.”

“She’s going to be missed, that’s for sure, she’s part of the team,” said Fortin, himself an assistant head nurse. “For me it’s a family. I started here in ‘95, I could say maybe I’ve got 1 or 2 per cent left of the gang that I started off with. What we’re living right now is we’re losing the group that I started off with.”

Boucher-Larivière said that it was interesting seeing Romain’s talents go from the floor as a nurse up the management chain. 

“She has the respect of the whole staff, so it makes things so much easier when we’re in a crisis situation or short-staffed, because they trust Nat and she knows who can be in what sector to make things safe and proper,” she said. “She’s always been that kind of beacon that everybody goes to when things are a little bit rough, she’s been there forever and people really respect and trust her judgement. It’s been really really an honour working with her.”

Paquette, Romain’s administrative assistant, said that her departure was bittersweet. 

“Of course I’m going to miss her for the woman that she is and the manager that she is, but I’m so incredibly happy for her. It’s a very well-deserved retirement after 35 years of basically giving your life over to somebody else,” she said. “Working in health care is a little different [ . . . ] because you’re working with people all the time, working with people’s health, and people’s worries, their joys, so it takes a special kind of person.”

Boucher-Larivière agreed that Romain’s identity is very tightly interwoven with the building and the community it houses.

“Nat’s been a little bit the heart of the hospital, so it’s going to be a big adjustment for everybody.”