Cathy Bendel’s career in nursing is nothing short of amazing. She has 50 years of experience in various health care roles, nearly 30 of which have been here at Phoebe Ministries. Her selflessness and dedication to the field have made her a valuable asset to Phoebe Richland, where she currently acts as the Minimum Data Set Coordinator.
The road to get to where she is now was long but fulfilling.
Bendel spent most of her childhood growing up in Rochester, NY, with her six siblings. She and her sister Jackie were the oldest of the bunch and would always look after their younger siblings.
“That’s where I first started to become a caretaker,” says Bendel. Her mother had dreams of becoming a nurse, but they never came to fruition, partially due to the responsibility of motherhood. It’s one reason why Bendel decided to pursue nursing – to live the life her mother would have wanted.
She started to consider nursing as a potential career in high school. Her parents were, naturally, very supportive. Shortly after graduation, Bendel attended a nursing program offered through the city of Rochester. The program lasted a year and had Bendel thoroughly involved in hands-on training at a local hospital. She became a licensed nurse at the age of 19.
Hitting the ground running, Bendel got to work immediately at a community hospital on the rehabilitation floor, tending to older adults. In many ways, her eventual arrival at Phoebe felt like a full-circle moment, where she would also care for older adults.
Entering the healthcare world can be overwhelming, but Bendel was more excited than nervous. She attributes her steadiness to her early maturity as an older sibling. She quickly embraced her work.
“Being a caregiver gives me a lot of satisfaction,” says Bendel. It’s a satisfaction that carried her through her work in the ICU at a larger hospital over the next several years. She describes this period of her life as one of the most educational. Because the hospital had ICUs for all different kinds of ailments, Bendel was able to learn about each.
“It was a real broad range of experience,” says Bendel. She learned a lot just by observing the work of her fellow nurses and doctors.
After her time at the hospital, she moved to Pennsylvania and began her Phoebe journey at the Allentown campus. She would work here for roughly 25 years.
At Phoebe Bendel, once again, threw herself into her work. She operated on nearly every shift and assumed many roles. She was a staff nurse, a charge nurse, a unit manager, and even oversaw the short-term and long-term rehab units. Needless to say, Bendel had her job cut out for her.
It was also at Phoebe Allentown that Bendel met her current husband, Dan. He was the Assistant Director of Environmental Services at the time and would later transition to Phoebe Richland as the Director of Environmental Services. Dan encouraged Bendel to work at Phoebe Richland once a position opened up, and she has now been working there for the past two years.
What’s kept Bendel at Phoebe this long is the community and the relationships she has built.
“I fell in love with the work,” she says. “I love to listen to residents’ stories. They’re amazing. You learn so much from them and how you might want to guide your own life.” Despite some computer work involved, Bendel is thankful to be in a role that requires resident interaction. With her help, she ensures that residents are getting the appropriate care they need.
There were certainly hardships along the way, though. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic that shook the nursing world back in 2020.
“It was surreal,” says Bendel. “It’s hard to even fathom what was happening.” She recalls all the ways in which her day-to-day tasks were altered, sometimes creating physical and metaphorical rifts between her and her peers.
Bendel distinctly remembers one day when she noticed one of her residents standing at a window and looking down below. When Bendel went to see what the resident was looking at, she noticed the resident’s grandchildren drawing chalk messages to be read from above.
“It still makes me want to cry,” says Bendel.
That moment seemed to encapsulate the dreadful feeling that permeated the air during that time. She describes the pandemic as one of her most difficult moments from a nursing perspective. She also notes the large number of nurses who left the field of nursing during COVID, due to the newfound danger and stress of the job.
Through it all, Bendel remained positive. “I think we’ve emerged more resilient,” says Bendel, noting that she also learned a lot during the pandemic. “If something like this happened again, we’d handle it differently.”
Through her extensive career, Bendel has learned some profound lessons about life and the healthcare industry. Sometimes, these lessons could be quite frustrating.
Bendel says she has seen insurance companies and higher powers gradually relinquishing doctors’ voices. She argues that healthcare professionals, nurses included, should have a greater say in what a patient needs over insurance companies, as they often know the patient better. Bendel feels that this phenomenon has kept medical professionals from delivering sufficient care.
One of the other tough lessons Bendel had to learn was to accept death as a natural part of life.
“That was the hardest thing to face as a nurse – when your patients die,” says Bendel. One moment regarding death that has stuck with her to this day is the fact that many of her child patients who faced terminal diagnoses often found themselves in a Zen state of mind. These children were notably accepting of their mortality. She found that people in their 20s and 30s often fought the hardest for their survival.
“I learned to help people in that situation,” says Bendel. “I like caring for people in their final days, to help bring them any peace. It really upsets me to see agitation at the end of life. We can help people with that. That’s a rewarding feeling.”
Today, Bendel is happy to work at Phoebe Richland alongside her husband. Her two children are also highly accomplished. Bendel’s daughter is also a nurse, while her son is a Doctor of Biology, performing cancer research.
“They’re both really brilliant and good people,” she says.
Bendel plans to retire at Phoebe but will always assume the role of a nurse in her later years.
“I’ve been a nurse longer than anything I’ve ever been in my life,” says Bendel. “I think that once you become a nurse, you’re always a nurse.”
To learn more about Phoebe Richland and our Personal Care and Health Care neighborhoods, please visit https://phoebe.org/communities/richland-community-page/.
Written by Dominic Trabosci
