After 39 years as a nurse at Whitehorse General Hospital, Elaine Iceton says that although nursing is a great profession, those considering it as a career should first think about the kind of life they want.

The hours are long and include a lot of holidays and weekends, Iceton said in a recent interview. The job can also be stressful, although she added that nurses are very supportive of each other.

A native of Toronto, Iceton headed north in the fall of 1968 and has lived and worked in Whitehorse ever since.

'I always wanted to come to the North,' Iceton said.

Although she was raised in Toronto and graduated from the University of Toronto, she said she prefers the friendly, small-town community of Whitehorse over the traffic and congestion of major urban areas.

'I enjoyed it here a lot because you know everyone,' she said.

As a student nurse in Toronto, Iceton said, she and the other nurses spent a lot of time just trying to navigate the large hospitals.

Iceton also cites the beauty of the scenery in the Yukon as a reason for her long stay here.

Like most women of her generation, Iceton said her career choices were to become either a secretary, nurse, or teacher. There was no question of studying nursing, said Iceton.

Following graduation, Iceton spent a year working at a small hospital in Baie Verte, Nfld.

The hospital consisted mostly of general practicioners, she said. If major procedures were required, patients had to be transferred to one of the larger hospitals in the province.

Iceton didn't stay in Newfoundland because she felt she hadn't travelled enough and wanted to see more of Canada, she said.

Thus, she next spent a year working as a public health nurse in Kingston, Ont. Public health nurses go directly to people's homes to help them with health issues including elderly people, coping with newborn babies, or learning to live with ill health.

Iceton said, she missed the hospital setting and the direct contact with patients and drove north with a girlfriend the following year for a change.

When she first arrived at Whitehorse General Hospital, Iceton briefly worked in the maternity ward, followed by a stint as a medical nurse.

The medical ward includes patients with long-term illnesses, psychiatric problems, or medical conditions such as angina.

Iceton said she found her niche as a nurse in the surgical ward, where she spent 35 years out of her 39-year career in Whitehorse.

Iceton said she got the most professional satisfaction frm being in the surgical ward because she got to see her patients' health rapidly improve following their surgery.

Iceton added that the length of hospital stays has shortened significantly since the beginning of her career.

Following major surgery, patients would often stay in the hospital for seven to 10 days, said Iceton. But because surgery has become much less invasive, patients are often able to return home within a day or two following an operation.

Iceton added that nursing is a very interesting profession and that no two days are the same.

'The phone could ring and your whole day could change. The hours don't drag by.'

Iceton added that nurses also make time for fun on the job.

'Beware of April Fool,' she said.

Nurses, particularly those on the night shift, would sometimes play practical jokes such as dressing up a fake patient, supposedly suffering from kidney failure, and naming the patient Ivana Tinkle.

Iceton plans to stay in Whitehorse with her husband in her post-retirement life and spoil her two grandchildren.

Iceton also said she hopes to do some travelling, perhaps to the Maritimes.