Lacresha “Cre” Wearrien, Nursing Care Assistant

"From the mid-eighties to early nineties, I was employed at the McDonald's on Holland Road in Saginaw. I always longed to work at Saginaw General Hospital because it was close to home.

In 1991, I left my management position at McDonald’s to attend Ross Medical School to become a Nursing Care Assistant (NCA). I started working in the healthcare field after graduating with honors later that year.

My first job in the medical field was at a local nursing home. One of my patients had a daughter who was a nurse at Saginaw General. She loved the way I cared for her mother and asked if I was interested in working at the hospital. It was like God was lining me up for something I had always wanted.

I started at Saginaw General in 1995 as a part-time Patient Care Assistant, now known as an NCA. I got my start in the progressive care unit (PCU), which was a step-down unit for the intensive care unit (ICU).

My nurse manager, Cyndi Sauter, was overwhelmed with how well I was doing and encouraged me to apply for a full-time position when one came along. In the beginning, I was terrified of Cyndi. I was new and young, and she was stern and strict.

I learned to love her leadership because she taught us how to be strong, stick together and do things as a team. She would always come to the floors and check on us anytime we were pulled to a different unit to see how our day was going. I truly appreciated her.

When Cyndi left, Deb Dutton became our leader and was the nurturer of the unit. She was the mother that gave us all the love. We could go to her and talk to her about anything and everything, and she’d still give us a hug whether we were right or wrong.

I wanted to become a registered nurse early on, but all the love that I have in me resides with the patient. I love the direct care and interaction with patients and getting to know them as individuals without added duties that take you away from the bedside."

Pictured: Lacresha “Cre” Wearrien, Nursing Care Assistant
(Former Patient Care Assistant, Saginaw General Hospital)

"Life at the hospital was very different when I got my start at Saginaw General in 1995.

Back then, there were designated smoking areas, including the cafeteria. When admitting a patient, they would have the option to select a smoking or non-smoking room. There were two rooms on the 8 Main unit that were smoking—818 and 819.

We had carpet on the units. The walls were white—everything was white—including our uniforms. Once we merged with St. Luke’s Hospital, everything started to become more colorful. We were able to wear any colors we wanted, so we would shop and get all these different uniforms.

There were more female nurses than male nurses. There were more Caucasian nurses than African American Nurses. Now, you see all races and genders as nurses, which is awesome.

In addition to nurses and patient care assistants, we had monitor techs, who would keep an eye on telemonitors and let us know when batteries needed to be changed, and unit aides, who would retrieve pumps for IVs, tidy the unit and help where needed. We also had candy stripers on the units that sported red and white striped dresses. Their duties ranged from delivering drinks to patients and guiding them out of the hospital during discharge.

We did paper charting for patient records. Everything was paper, paper, paper, paper. Nurses would carry paper charts with them to round on patients with the doctors. It was big when Hewlett Packard computers and electronic medical records came out. Some of our senior nurses had never used a computer before, so that was a really big change for them.

We used to stand by the cafeteria in line to pick up our paper checks, and we would have to give our employee ID numbers—I only have a three-digit employee ID number. New employees today are in the six-digits, which shows the growth we’ve had as an organization over the years.

I remember a big internal job posting board on the first floor at Saginaw General where employees would see what other jobs they could apply for within the hospital. Now, you just do all these things online."

Pictured: Lacresha "Cre" Wearrien, NCA

"The intensive care unit (ICU) and critical care unit (CCU) became my home after the progressive care unit closed prior to the merger. We were sisterly units. The ICU was on the sixth floor and CCU was on the second floor at Saginaw General (now Covenant Harrison). The CCU later moved to the Covenant Cooper campus after the merger with St. Luke's in 1998.

We were nervous during the merger because Saginaw General and St. Luke's were known rivals coming together as one. It was a scary but exciting time.

Many units were moved to different floors and buildings, so it was quite an adjustment. One particular person who stood out to me during the merger was the Bill Heath, the President of Saginaw General at the time. He would come in every single weekend and visit every floor. He knew us all by name and would check in and say 'Hi, Cre—how are things going?' That made such a difference to us.

I recall the hospitals putting a committee together to choose the name for the newly unified medical center. They ended up choosing Covenant HealthCare, along with the dove and the flame represented in our logo still today. The name grew on all of us.

The merger was an enormous change that we all had to get used to. It took a while, but I appreciate the things we went through to get there. Some people shy away or walk away from change. I don't like change, but I accept it. I already knew this was my home and that I was going to stay.

Through the merger, we became a unified family. You met new friends. You got to work at both hospitals and learned so much in the process.

The opportunities for everybody here at Covenant today are awesome. You can move around to so many different areas in the hospital, even if you don't have a degree.

To this day, I feel like the merger was the best choice that both hospitals could have made together. Now, we are like one big, close-knit family that has grown so much.

Covenant is a hospital that sticks together; no matter what we go through, we come out together."

Pictured: NCA Co-workers

"I would recommend anyone that needs to go to the hospital to go to Covenant HealthCare. I absolutely love Covenant because we are a family.

I had a tragedy in my life five years ago when my husband, Kevin, passed away. The Covenant team was amazing to me.

Kevin had a fall at work, and we thought he had just broken his arm. The next day, he passed out at home, so I called an ambulance to take him to the emergency room. There, they found he had a lacerated liver and internal bleeding.

Covenant was there for me in my time of need. I was off for two months, and colleagues I had never even met donated paid time off, checked in and sent care packages. From the doctors and the nurses, the nurse managers, respiratory care, imaging and diagnostics—everybody did something to help me. You work at a place and don't realize how many people know you or care enough to do something special when you are so broken deep down.

From Sue Casey, his reach nurse, to Dr. Tory Haddad, his ER physician—they all were there for my family and me. I recently lost my mother-in-law, and Dr. Murskyj didn't leave my side; he let me cry on his shoulder.

It knocks the wind out of me because they could have just given me condolences and gone back to work; but they stayed. I'll never forget that.

During my break each day, I sit in the chapel. I run into different physicians regularly. Recently, I saw two doctors praying together, and it was so beautiful. He told me they come in five times a day and pray for a different reason or patient. This really made me see our doctors differently. With the volume of work they do, taking the time to pray for the wellbeing of countless patients and their families does something to me.

The love I have for Covenant HealthCare is everlasting. This will forever be my family "

—Lacresha "Cre" Wearrien, Nursing Care Assistant, Covenant HealthCare
(Former Patient Care Assistant, Saginaw General Hospital)

Pictured: Lacresha "Cre" Wearrien, NCA

Pictured: Lacresha "Cre" Wearrien, NCA