NMCC nursing graduate honored
PRESQUE ISLE — When students graduate from college, a world of opportunities is open to them. Sometimes those opportunities are found close to home, but for some, the lure of traveling will bring a whole new realm of possibilities. That has certainly been true for Lisa Peters Currie, an alumna of Northern Maine Community College.
Lisa Peters Currie, 
a 1992 NMCC nursing graduate, has been a nurse traveler for the past decade. Her experience has led to a wealth of personal and professional experiences, and most recently, accolades in her field. Currie was named as one of the 2012 Travelers of the Year by Healthcare Traveler magazine, published in December.
“The true gift of traveling has been to go to so many places and take care of people like I would want my own family to be taken care of, which is what I feel nursing is truly about,” said Currie, a native of Presque Isle.
Currie’s first travel assignment was in Aurora, Colo. in 1998. Since then, she has worked in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Idaho, Wisconsin and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She has worked in health care facilities such as Mission Hospital – St. Joseph’s in Asheville, N.C., Wentworth Douglass and Dartmouth-Hitchcock in New Hampshire; and Lahey, Tufts and Wesley-Newton medical centers in Massachusetts. She is currently employed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center University Campus in the ICU trauma unit.
“Travel nursing has given me the opportunity to work at some of the facilities where people come from around the world to receive treatment, and I have had the chance to meet some of the top medical providers,” said Currie. At Mercy Hospital in Portland, she met the man who invented the oxygen probe which is used in facilities everywhere.
With numerous poignant moments during her career, Currie recalls her most memorable one taking place in Elkhorn, Wisc. where she was the ICU nurse for a young wife and mother who had been hospitalized for a minor illness and nearly died.
“She had young children, and it was heartbreaking to watch them at her bedside,” said Currie, who cared for the patient overnight until she could be transferred to another facility. At that time, it was unknown what had caused the collapse or if she would survive.
A few weeks went by when Currie was told she had a visitor at the front desk.
“Being so far from home, I thought it must be a mistake because I knew so few people there. I walked to the front, and the husband of the woman I had taken care of was there with flowers to say ‘thank you’ for taking care of his wife,” said Currie. “My heart stopped, because for a brief moment I thought she must not have survived. Then around a column walked the woman, as healthy as a person could be. I know I caught my breath and had to sit down. I knew in that moment this is what the job is all about. It’s not about money. It is giving of yourself so someone’s someone is able to go forward on this life’s journey with them for years to come, and knowing you have made a difference.”
Currie’s recent recognition as a 2012 health care Traveler of the Year demonstrates that her professionalism and dedication to her job and her patients is recognized on a national level. She is the daughter of Tom and Diane Peters.
