A woman born at Rambam Health Care Campus in the 1950s became a nurse, and has worked at the hospital in this capacity since she was 19 years old.
Vicky Cohen in Ruth Rappaport Children's Hospital. Photography courtesy of Rambam HCC.
Vicky Cohen, 67 is the oldest nurse at Rambam Health Care Campus. She has spent the past 48 years working at Rambam caring for children in the same department. Remaining in the same workplace for so many years is unusual in and of itself, but what makes Vicky’s story especially unique is that she was also born at Rambam in 1954.
When Vicky was 12 years old, her grandmother was brought to Rambam after suffering a severe stroke and passed away. Vicky had accompanied her grandmother to the hospital, a pivotal moment that contributed to her decision to make caring for people her life’s work. “At the age of 19-and-a-half, three months after I gave birth to my first daughter, I started working at Rambam's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit as a caregiver,” Vicky recalls. “The years passed; my oldest daughter is now 48, and I’ve been at Rambam for the same number of years, treating the hospital's children.”
From department to department, Vicky never left the profession she loves so much, and the hospital has become her second home. In two months she will reach mandatory retirement age and leave her nursing position in the Department of Pediatrics A at Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital, but not her vocation. “After so many years, I still get up every morning for the profession I love so much,” she says. “Working with children provides a lot of strength and motivation. I feel like I started working in the profession only recently,” she laughs. “even today, I have a lot more to give.”
Vicky Cohen when she first started working at Rambam.
