It's never too late

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The age old adage, “It’s never too late” can apply to almost anything.
The saying especially holds true for continuing one’s education – as Terry Williams can certainly attest to.
Terry Mouton Williams is a Kaplan native and daughter of Rose and Jonas Mouton. She is married to John Williams of Kaplan and the couple have two children Adrian and Jade Williams, and one granddaughter, A’Maiah Murry.
For the last 29 years, Terry has been employed as a nurse at Abrom Kaplan Memorial Hospital.
At the age of 17 during her senior year, Terry had the opportunity to care for her ill grandfather while he was in the hospital. That event motivated Terry to seek employment as a nurse’s aid and she applied at Kaplan Hospital after her high school graduation in 1977.
The hospital at the time, however, was short staffed and there was no one available to train Terry.
“I had no real desire to go to school at the time,” said Terry. “Back then the main thing was to graduate from high school. That was an accomplishment in itself. After not getting the aid position, I landed a job at Garan’s and after about three months I realized it just wasn’t for me. So I decided to go back to school.”
Terry applied to both trade schools in Crowley and Abbeville. Southwest Vo-tech School in Crowley was the first to reply and ultimately is where Terry attained her training as an LPN.
After her graduation in 1979, she reapplied to Kaplan Hospital and received a position almost immediately. In her time at the hospital, Terry says she has always been happy and has never thought about looking for employment elsewhere.
Later on, while married with two kids and working full time, Terry decided to attend LSUE to obtain her RN license.
“When kids say they can’t go back to school, I don’t believe it!”
“When they say that they cannot go to school, or they can’t make it, I feel that they haven’t really applied themselves. I know from my experience that if you apply yourself, it can be done. When I graduated from high school, I had zero college bound classes. I was able to obtain two degrees: LPN and RN, so I know it can be done without even taking college bound credits.”
During Terry’s time at Abrom Kaplan Memorial Hospital, she has worked as an ER & OB nurse, a floor nurse where she enjoyed the one-on-one direct patient care, a nursery nurse, and currently as a surgery nurse. Terry has been manager of nursery and is now the OR manager. Terry made the switch to surgery because of the hours.
“I thought I wouldn’t enjoy surgery because I enjoyed being a floor nurse so much. But I gave it a try and I loved it.”
Terry has made many friends during her 29 years of employment at Kaplan Hospital and describes the hospital as being a “family hospital.”
“I feel like the people who work there, want to be there. It’s really a family oriented hospital. I find that the people that come to us for care want to come to us – they want a home town facility. I have always felt that we have given good nursing care and good medical care.”
The thing that has changed the most about nursing today according to Terry is the patient-nurse ratio and changes in technology.
“There were a lot of changes made in regards to patient safety. There is more work and less staff now than when I started nursing and there are also more male nurses today.”
Abrom Kaplan Memorial Hospital does it’s best to stay current with cutting edge technology. Just a couple of weeks ago, the hospital implemented new medicine dispensing equipment which matches patients to their correct dosages of medication.
One of the most interesting things that happened to Terry during her career was having a patient recognize her after almost a decade.
“There are so many people that you meet up with who will ask, ‘Do you remember me?’ And a lot of times you don’t remember who they are. Years ago, probably fifteen year ago, I met up with an old lady at Young Eye Clinic while I was there with my kids. She asked me how I was and if those were my kids and I told her ‘Yes.’ Then she said, ‘Did you ever marry that boyfriend of yours that you were seeing?’”
“I looked at her and I didn’t know what to say. She told me that she remembered when I was a young nurse fresh out of nursing school and she was a patient in room 116. She remembered that I worked the evening shift and he would come pick me up every night at eleven. At first, I thought she was mistaken until she recounted how John would always pick me from my night shift. Here it was years later and this old lady still remembered me!”
“She told me how I had taken such good care of her – and that is what nursing is about. If a patient can remember your face, and recount a story years later, then you know you made an impact on that person when that person needed it.”
Overall Terry has enjoyed her nursing career and looks forward to many more years to come.
She is extremely grateful to Abrom Kaplan Memorial Hospital, which she affectionately refers to as “The ‘Brom,” and that the care the hospital and its staff has provided her with through out the years.
“As a working nurse, I can’t say that I missed much with my kids. And that’s something you won’t find in Lafayette. I’ve been able to be there for them when it mattered the most.”
Terry’s life is an inspiration to many who are thinking about continuing their education.
She says, “It’s never too late to go back to school. Sure it is hard, but it can be done and it’s worth it.”