Roslyn Klein Reflects on 50 Years of Nursing

When Roslyn Klein stepped up to give a speech at an event celebrating her 50 years of work at Northwest Hospital, she wanted to make one thing clear: This was not the end of her work there.

“The first thing I said was, ‘This is not a retirement breakfast,’” recalled Klein, 86. “I didn’t want anyone to think I was retiring. As long as I can continue to do what I do now, physically and mentally, I have no plans to retire. Working is a major part of my life.”

Three days a week, Klein, or “Roz” as she’s known around the hospital, looks through and follows up on medical test results for patients who have been discharged. She ensures that they’ve been given proper antibiotics, and if they haven’t, she calls in prescriptions for the correct ones.

While Klein has had many different responsibilities as a nurse throughout the years, Northwest Hospital is the only place she’s ever worked. She started in 1974, when the hospital was known as Baltimore County General.

Klein lives in Pikesville and is a former member of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. She has several children, grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

When she was growing up in East Baltimore, Klein’s father owned a pharmacy and would often treat people from the neighborhood. But it did not occur to Klein that she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps until much later. She was married at 19 and dropped out of college shortly after.

When her youngest child started attending nursery school, Klein started thinking about her own education.

“I realized that I had missed something,” Klein said. “I had thought I wanted to go into education. That was all I ever thought of doing at the time and one of the few options women had [for careers]. You could be a teacher or a nurse. But my views changed because of my cousin, who was a nurse and who I always looked up to.”

Klein recounted that she had told her cousin she wanted to be a nurse, but thought she had missed her chance by dropping out of school. Her cousin told her about nursing programs at community colleges. Almost immediately after, Klein drove home, called a local community college and signed up for classes.

“I told my husband that night when I got home and he said to go for it,” she said. “He was supportive, so I went right onto that track.”

When Klein first started work at Baltimore County General, it was a very small hospital. She estimated that it only had four ICU beds. But it was close to home, so it gave her the opportunity to work while still being close to her children.

Initially, she did bedside nursing work in a surgical area, but Klein said she “always had her eye on the emergency room.” About seven years into the job, she had the opportunity to do just that, and worked in the emergency room until offered the opportunity to do her current job about 10 years ago.

The main reason that Klein has worked at Northwest Hospital for so long, through its name change, merger with Sinai Hospital and formation of LifeBridge Health, is because she just loves to be a nurse and have contact with patients.

“I love what I’m doing,” she explained. “I feel that I can be of assistance to someone who needs help.”

Klein was raised in a Jewish household, but her current involvement in the Jewish community is fairly minimal. After her husband died eight years ago, she became less involved with her congregation. But she said she still loves celebrating the holidays with family, and hopes to pass the traditions she grew up with onto her children, grandchildren and now great-grandchildren.

While she spends her days off meeting with friends and taking walks with her walking group, Klein plans to continue her work at Northwest Hospital until she is no longer able to work.

“When you’re valued in a place and important [to the people there], it really makes a difference,” she said. “And I like the challenge and that I still have challenges. I feel like I can learn something new every day.”