Robert R. Dennis Jr., RN
Hometown: Uhrichsville. I am a small town boy with a big time 922 attitude. Raised by cultured parents and redneck friends.
Education: Old school Claymont graduate with two degrees from “Schoenbrunn University” (Kent State Tuscarawas).
Job: Registered Nurse at Mercy Medical Center in Canton. Staff Nurse in surgery working on the Divinci Surgical Robotics Program doing urological, general gynecology and thoracic robotic surgery
Years on the job: I just hit 30 years on the job, all in surgery. What was I thinking? I could have done something with my life!
What is the best part of nursing? Working with people, both patients and my amazing talented teammates make it a pleasure to be there. It's hard to call it work being with friends all day. The other cool thing is the technology, Mercy recently retired its first two Divinci Robots after nearly 10 years and replaced them with State of the Art Divinci Xi Robots. The benefits make patients recovery so much easier. It's very gratifying for me to see them do better post operationally.
What made you want to become a nurse? I've always wanted to do something that would help others. The Sisters at Mercy call it doing “God's Work.” (I thought God would pay better!) But honestly, I grew up when the Clay Pipe plants were going out of business. Two men would meet on the street and they wouldn't say “Hi, How are you doing”, they would say “Are you working? Is anyone hiring?” I wanted something in demand. Nursing gave me something where I could help people and be fairly secure.
What is the most difficult part of nursing? At Mercy we see some critically ill patients. I try to treat each patient like family, to make them feel better about what can be a very intimidating and frightening situation. Sometimes you know the outcome might not be good and you wish you could do more to help. Sometimes we have to be satisfied with making the situation better than before you saw them.
What do you like to do when you're not working? The best thing in life is doing things with my family. My kids are so much fun to be with. Going to the lake, fixing things around our old house or just hanging out with them is such a good time for me, I hope it is for them.
What's the top thing on your bucket list? A small cabin in the country on 5-10 acres with a pond, a place for target shooting and lots of firewood for relaxing evenings (redneck paradise!)
What is the one thing about you that no one knows? I have 700 mice in my garage. Kyle, my son, has several snakes as pets and we have had trouble finding food for them so I decided to breed our own. I got six and they got carried away!
I wish I was good at... being brave. It's not ways easy or safe to do the right thing. When you see a situation that isn't right you can look the other way, not get involved and say it's not my problem. If something is wrong and you know about it it is now your problem and you need to stand up for what is right. When someone needs your help you must feel obligated to do what you can to help each other. Responsibility to each other make the world a little kinder place.
Bob is married to Autum, who he says is “ the coolest woman I've ever met” and they have four children, Heather, Mathew, Samantha and Kyle.
COMPILED BY TAMMIE TAGGART