Becoming a nurse was a delayed dream for Carol Fulcher, who always planned on going to school and graduating with a nursing degree, but had to postpone her plans as life simply got in the way for a number of years.

Originally from Ontario, Fulcher began her first foray into nursing school in the 1980s.

“My mom was sick, and I helped look after her,” said Fulcher.

“She passed away in 1980 and I think from that point on I always wanted to be a nurse, and so I started nursing school then. It was a two-year program in Ontario. Then I met my husband and I got married and that part took a backseat, I started raising a family. I guess I always had it in the back of my mind that I always wanted to go back and finish that and I always just wanted to be a nurse. Somewhere in there I always wanted to be a nurse.”

Relocating from Ontario to BC in 1982, Fulcher was busy as a mother and working for her husband’s landscaping company. It was nearly 15 years before Fulcher decided it was time to follow her dream and enrol in a nursing program in Kamloops.

“I was an older student, I had two kids at home one was in middle school and one was in high school,” explained Fulcher.

“I drove to Kamloops everyday for four years of school and then I worked in Kamloops hospital for another three years so for seven years I drove back and forth. I just can’t even think of it now, but at the time you just do what you need to do.”

Fulcher completed her four-year program in 2000 while in her early forties, and worked first at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, then between both Royal Inland and the Merritt hospital, before finally transitioning to Merritt hospital full time.

The differences between a larger and busier hospital like Royal Inland and the smaller Nicola Valley Health Centre and Hospital has provided an opportunity for Fulcher to diversify and engage in new aspects of healthcare, which she enjoys.

“In Kamloops you get very specific to one area, my one manager once said knowledge is an inch wide and a mile deep – you do those one or two things really, really well,” said Fulcher.

“When you come to Merritt there’s so much, it’s so diverse, it’s not just one area. So, instead your knowledge is about a mile wide and an inch deep! You know a lot of different things about a lot of different things.”

Six years ago Fulcher entered community nursing, something she didn’t expect to enjoy as much as she does, feeling her work in palliative care to be the most rewarding.

“I do a lot of palliative care, that’s my passion,” said Fulcher.

“I find it an honour and a privilege that people allow me into their homes and into their lives and I get to know all of them and help them through whatever period of time that they’re going through. I think that’s my most rewarding, end of life. And I never thought it would be, but here I am.”

Fulcher has some advice for those who want to enter the nursing profession, whether they have the opportunity to start their journey right out of high school or have to wait until later in adulthood.

“Don’t look too far ahead because it’s overwhelming,” warned Fulcher.

“Try to take things in small steps. Take things in small pieces. There’s so much to learn.”

And the learning has lasted long after graduation for Fulcher.

it’s the continuous learning, ever since I graduated, I haven’t stopped going to school,” said Fulcher.

“Particularly for the last 20 years since I’ve graduated, I’ve been in school. Trying to keep an open mind and listening to the patients. I guess my most favourite moment, I always tell my patients this, my greatest teacher was a three year old child that had come back to Merritt from Vancouver, and she taught me the steps and told me which order to do things and I had to listen. You never stop learning and you never stop listening to your people.”

Although it took some time for Fulcher to launch what is now a career of twenty years and counting, her decision to enter nursing has been fulfilling, and continues to bring her much enjoyment.

“I really love being a nurse, I enjoy it,” Fulcher said.

“I enjoy what I’m doing working in the community. It’s great. Once you make the decision to be a nurse, you will get out of nursing whatever you put into it, so if you put your all into it and give it all that you’ve got, you’re going to get a lot out of it. Whatever you go looking for you will find it, if you go looking for love and resilience and determination, all those things, you will find it in your people. It’s there. It’s amazing and astounding, it’s overwhelming, every kind of emotion you can think of. At the end of the day people really surprise me with their strength and their resilience. I think for nurses, our main thing is all of us want to do our best job, and I think that’s it at the end of the day. We just want to do our best for the people. That’s why we became a nurse.”