Florence "SeeSee" Rigney, a registered nurse working at MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital in Washington, has been faithfully helping patients for 69 years. On Friday, she celebrated her 90th birthday.
Her fellow nurses and hospital staff greeted Rigney with birthday wishes and a letter of congratulations from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, and as she thanked them for the well wishes, she could hardly hold back tears. Inslee recognized her as the country's oldest working nurse.
[seealso slug="3d-print-ultrasound"]
"You are all wonderful," she said. "I know I'm a pain in the you-know-what!"
In 2013, Rigney said that she "loves nursing," and that it had been her dream to become a nurse since she was a little girl. She graduated from the Tacoma General Hospital School of Nursing in 1946 and has remained there throughout her career.
Although Rigney doesn't work directly with patients in the operating room, she spends her workweek -- which has been reduced to two days -- setting up rooms with supplies and equipment.