All in the family

When Jenny Follin, BSN, graduated from nursing school at Florida State University in 2007, her mother and her great-aunt — both nurses — were there to pin her.

She knew that her grandmother, Rita Coyne, a nurse for 49 years, was there in spirit. Coyne had died four months earlier, but not before proudly giving her nurse’s cape to her granddaughter.

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BARRY WILLIAMS / Special

Lorraine Follin (left) and her daughter, Jenny, hold a photograph of Lorraine’s mother, Rita Coyne. All three women chose nursing as a career.

Nursing runs in this family. Starting with Rita Coyne and her sister, Anita Edwards, three generations of women have found different but equally fulfilling roles in nursing.

“My mom graduated from the diploma program at Lenox Hill Hospital [in Manhattan] when she was 21,” said Lorraine Follin, RN, Jenny’s mother. “I got my associate’s degree in nursing from the Palm Beach Community College in 1993, and now my daughter has her BSN degree.”

Lorraine grew up watching her mom practice nursing.

“My mom worked for the Palm Beach County Health Department for 30 years. She ran TB and AIDS clinics, and the Christmas party for indigent families every year. She loved her job in all its aspects,” Lorraine said. “When [she] my Aunt Anita — an OR nurse and the family cut-up — got together, they would talk shop and tell stories that began, ‘Man you won’t believe what I saw.’ ”

Lorraine enjoyed the humor, but also saw the dedication. “I was amazed at what my mother did for people, at how she affected their lives,” she said.

When people would greet her and say, “Oh, you’re Rita Coyne’s daughter,” Lorraine Follin knew from the sound in their voices that her mother had made a difference.

Lorraine Follin got married and had three children before becoming a nurse.

“I had always thought about nursing, but at the age of 34, after caring for an aunt with breast cancer, I was suddenly sure,” she said.

She graduated with honors from nursing school and went into oncology nursing.

“I knew I’d lose patients, but if I could make them comfortable so they could enjoy life, I’d have done my job,” she said. “It’s a rewarding feeling to be able to help somebody. Nursing just seems so natural to me.”

Blending family needs with her career over the years, Lorraine was a nurse in various settings, including home health, case management and medical sales. Today, she’s a case manager at the Dahlonega office of Amedisys, a home health care provider, and a med-surge nurse at Northeast Georgia Medical Center.

“The wonderful thing about nursing is that you can go into so many different areas, and you can combine a profession with having a family,” she said.

‘I could do that’

Although she admired what her mother and grandmother did, Jenny Follin had no interest in bedside nursing. She never felt pressured to be a nurse, but health care seems to run in the genes.

Jenny went through her high school’s medical magnet program with a goal of becoming a physical therapist. A swimmer and a softball player, she wanted to work in sports medicine.

“I figured young athletes would have the drive to get better, and I like seeing results,” she said.

While taking core college classes and exploring physical therapy, Jenny met nurses who were working as registered nurse first assistants in an orthopedic surgeon’s office. She liked what RNFAs do — providing technical assistance under the supervision and direction of operating surgeons.

“I thought, ‘I could do that,’ ” Jenny said. “It seemed like an up-and-coming specialty and got me thinking seriously about nursing.”

She works as a circulating nurse in operating rooms at Northeast Georgia Medical Center.

“I like seeing people come in with injuries, see something fixed in surgery and know that they leave better. It’s immediately satisfying,” she said.

Her goal is to become a registered nurse first assistant, which requires two years of experience as an operating nurse, national certification in perioperative nursing and completion of an RNFA program approved by the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses. Nurse first assistants assist surgeons by performing skills like retracting, suturing, clamping blood vessels and closing incisions.

“I tell student nurses who come for their clinical rotations that this job isn’t like floor nursing,” she said. “The equipment and the fast pace of the operating room isn’t for everybody, but I know this is where I belong.”

Nursing has brought Jenny and her mother closer.

“She’ll call me now when she’s had a rough day — like having to operate on a baby with a brain tumor. I can hear her emotions,” Lorraine said. “It takes control and caring to be a good nurse. Jenny definitely has what it takes.”