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After more than 35 years in the nursing profession, including more than a decade of making positive changes across Niagara Health, Laura Farrelly, Director, Mental Health and Addictions, is retiring.
Choppers carrying the wounded propelled through the cobalt blue sky as a man watched from the foothills of the mountain below.
Laura Farrelly watched, too, from the other side of the television screen, not yet knowing that M*A*S*H would be the thing to eventually lead her to a more than 35-year career in healthcare.
“I still watch M*A*S*H when it’s on,” says Farrelly, Director, Mental Health and Addictions, of the American medical dramedy series.
Initially graduating with a Diploma in Nursing from Mohawk College, followed by her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from McMaster University, Farrelly later obtained her Master of Education from Brock University, followed by a Master of Health Administration from Dalhousie University.
She spent the majority of her career with Hamilton Health Sciences, in the region she’s called home for decades, until an opportunity she couldn’t refuse came up at Niagara Health.
“I’m from Niagara Falls and my whole family is in the region, so I found myself coming back often,” she says. “Niagara is like home to me.”
In January 2014, she made the move to Niagara Health as Director, Women, Babies’ and Children. Less than a year prior, the St. Catharines Hospital – now named the Marotta Family Hospital – opened its doors.
She still remembers walking through the brand-new hospital for her interview and being struck by it.
“The hospital was so immense, clean, open and inviting,” she says. “I fell in love with it as soon as I walked in, and I’ve been in love ever since. The space fits the welcoming atmosphere.”
During her time as Director, Women, Babies’ and Children, Farrelly enhanced the scope of Niagara Health’s neonatal services by expanding our level of care from a Special Care Nursery to a Level 2C Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She led the team through the integration of MoreOB – a program geared towards improving patient safety and promoting a patient safety culture in hospital obstetrical programs – and led the Children’s Health team through the unprecedented 2022/23 respiratory season.
“In Women, Babies’ and Children, there’s a perception that it’s a really happy place – and it can be,” she says. “But the work is incredibly difficult, and the pressures and stressors are extreme.”
In 2021, Farrelly took on a new challenge as Director, Emergency Services, where she led several key initiatives, including the implementation of the Emergency Department (ED) tech role, which has reduced offload hours and improved ED access.
Career advice from Laura Farrelly:
“When you come to work, do a fantastic job, but balance your work life and your home life. I have friends outside of work, go away for girls’ weekends, have outside interests. Do things that make you feel refreshed because healthcare will consume you. It’s busier and more stressful than it’s ever been, but you have to take care of yourself.”
“Unless you spend time working in an ED, it can be difficult to appreciate how relentlessly the team work,” she says. “They constantly have to pivot and help people through some of the worst days of their lives.”
Leading such high-pressure teams is a feat that hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Laura’s efforts and leadership at Niagara Health have set the path for these programs to continuously grow and evolve,” says Heather Paterson, Executive Vice-President, Clinical Operations. “She has been the driving force behind various initiatives that have changed the way we provide care across the hospital. Both Niagara Health as a whole and the patients we serve are all the better because of her.”
For Farrelly, the sentiments she’s received from colleagues ahead of her Oct. 11 retirement are “overwhelming.”
“The praise I’ve received is felt right back to everyone I work with,” she says. “I just try to listen and hear people’s struggles and ask what they need, and then work to help meet those needs. I work with people who are brilliant at what they do... It’s leaving the people that’s the hardest thing about retiring.”
While Farrelly has seen a vast amount of change across healthcare in her 35 years, she refers to it in the same two timeframes of anyone who has been in the field prior to 2020: Before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During my time in healthcare, we’ve had pockets of SARS and H1N1,” she says. “When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it was something that no one ever thought we’d experience in our lifetime. The pandemic never wavered my commitment to healthcare – it only made me more committed. Our team pulled together so strongly and really cemented the way I felt about Niagara Health.”
The plans Farrelly is the most excited about for her retirement are the ones that don’t exist.
“This is the only time in my life that I’m going to be able to do nothing,” she says. “I’ve always worked hard. I have two kids. I want to eventually learn to play the drums and improve my golf game. In a couple months, I’m going to need to do something else. I love teaching nurses and students who are just starting out, so I might do something with that.”
In her grand finale role at Niagara Health as Director, Mental Health and Addictions, Farrelly’s leadership paved the way for improvements in delivery of care and has also improved access in both Withdrawal Management and Rapid Access clinics. Her focus on streamlining access to care led to the collaboration with the ED and Mental Health programs to enhance the delivery of psychiatric services in the ED.
“I have full faith in the people I’ve worked with during my succession planning,” she says. “I’m confident that those taking over these programs will continue to do great work. This place will continue on.”
