The School of Nursing in York's Faculty of Health celebrated the retirement of Karen Crotin, a practicum assistant in the Nursing Practicum Coordination Office. The retirement celebration took place on Friday afternoon in the Nursing Resource Centre.
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| Above: Karen Crotin (right) with her colleague Claire Mallette, director of the School of Nursing, during the retirement celebration held on Friday for Crotin by the School of Nursing |
It could easily be said that Crotin – a long-serving York employee – grew up and spent her life at York University. Prior to starting her career with the School of Nursing, she worked as a summer student on the Keele campus and then for four years in the Department of English. She left York briefly and then came back to work in the Institute for Social Research before transferring to the fledgling nursing school in 1994. Crotin was the first, and at that time, the only staff member in the School of Nursing. "I worked with the school's chair and one faculty member," she recalls.
Right: Sweet wishes for a happy retirement
Over the course of her career, Crotin has seen the School of Nursing grow from one staff member, two faculty members and approximately 60 students, to its current contingent of 18 staff members, 43 faculty members and more than 1,000 students.
For the past several years, Crotin has played an integral role in placing nursing students in their clinical placements directly in the health-care setting in which they will ultimately work. "This past year, we placed over 1,000 students in practicum settings," said Crotin. "It has been a very busy and rewarding year."
Now Crotin will start the next phase of her life pursuing her love of quilting. An accomplished quilter, she hopes to devote the fall to completing existing quilting projects and investigating new and historic quilting patterns. In the future she plans to travel and spend time with her family, including her two children, both of whom are graduates of York University.