Nurse Susan Januszewski poses with several other patients

Nurse Susan Januszewski in her traditional nurses uniform, sitting at a table

a school yearbook showing Nurse Susan Januszewski is seen standing by a table

Nurse Susan Januszewski sits talking with a person in a wheelchair

Nurse Susan Januszewski stands talking to a seated person writing in a book

Nurse Susan Januszewski stands outside in her traditional nurses uniform under a sign that says Willows Windsor

Nurse Susan Januszewski stands in a hospital room

“Everybody was so professional. They just took wonderful care of me for the time that I was there.” 
— Susan Januszewski

Susan Januszewski adjusts nurse hat while looking in the mirror

A Heart Way of Life: Susan’s Way Forward

Nursing is a calling that comes from the heart. That’s what Susan Martellotto Januszewski of Claremont, New Hampshire, believes in fully, as she’s dedicated most of her life to nursing.

Throughout her 47-year career and counting, she always puts patients' needs first, treating them "as if they were my family," she said.

However, months into the global pandemic, life for Susan changed in a heartbeat. For the first time, she found herself on the other side of care, undergoing open-heart surgery at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.

Susan Januszewski sits at her kitchen table

A call to care

From a young age, Susan recognized her calling. Growing up, she would babysit Little Eric, a 7-year-old boy with leukemia. The nurses who cared for him made a strong impression on her, as did her godmother and mother, who were also nurses.

As a teen in the 1970s, Susan volunteered as a candy striper. At 18, she enrolled in Marcy School of Nursing outside Utica, New York, where she would soon don her traditional white dress and white cap nurse's uniform. "You step into the role the same way military personnel would put on their dress blues,” she said. “You just feel good.”

Her nursing career has taken her down many paths: the Emergency Department, Medical-Surgical Unit, elementary school nursing, home care, and hospice. "I learn so much from my patients, and they also learn from me," she said. It was in December 2020, while visiting her daughter, when she collapsed without warning, was unable to walk, and was rushed to the Emergency Department for treatment.

“I was in excruciating pain,” she said. After being sent for an evaluation at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, doctors determined Susan had an infection that spread to her bloodstream, which endangered her heart. She would need to have open-heart surgery.

Susan was brought to the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU), hooked up to a catheter, and given IV antibiotics. “All of a sudden I became the patient and not the nurse,” she said.

The path to recovery

In the cardiac ICU, the nurses worked like clockwork, hooking up IVs and maneuvering wires on all of the complex medical equipment. “They knew exactly what they had to do,” Susan said. “And they were there when I needed them.”

It was a humbling experience, Susan recalled. “I'm used to being independent and being in control and taking care of everybody,” she said. Now, it was the opposite. “I had to just sit back and let other people take care of me.”

She was referred to Jock N. McCullough, MD, a cardiac surgeon at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center who would operate on and repair her mitral valve. Following surgery, she completed a three-month recovery program at Dartmouth Health’s Valley Regional Hospital for Cardiac Rehab in Claremont, New Hampshire.

“Everybody was so professional,” Susan said. “They just took wonderful care of me for the time that I was there.”

A close-knit support system of friends and family also kept Susan’s spirits up, and Lisa Olmstead, RN, played a big role in keeping her on track. “She had made sure that I got up…she had me going,” Susan said, reminding Susan of her own approach to caregiving.

Once settled at home in Claremont, Susan received visiting nurse care at home, which she recommends to anyone whether they think they need it or not. “It was very comforting to know that they were keeping track of me even when I was home.”

She kept a log book with questions, took notes, and despite her decades of experience, continued to learn. Slowly but surely, she regained her health and soon returned full-time to nursing.  

Susan Januszewski standing at a table with a friend who sits

Mind, body, and spirit creatures   

These days, Susan doesn’t skip a beat.   She now works as a registered nurse for Willows of Windsor, a senior living community in Vermont. “Every day I still get excited to go to work after all these years,” she said.

Work is close to home, close to family, and close to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, where she visits the cardiology department every year.

Knowing how life can suddenly change—having now experienced it firsthand—she can bring an ever deeper understanding to her patients.

Susan also takes time to care for herself in a way she didn’t before. She hikes, runs 5Ks, paints, spends time with her family, and is working on a children’s book about “the heart way of life”—a holistic health approach to living well.

Not only does the book introduce healthy habits to children, but also, “it’s about gratitude, and having a positive attitude in life,” Susan said. “People tend to forget that we are mind, body, and spirit creatures.” That’s something she’s seen and felt time and again throughout her career. For anyone who has a health crisis, she wants to remind them to ask questions, take notes, trust their body, and trust the professionals.

 “The whole Dartmouth Health system needs to be applauded,” she said, for how they cared for her. “They looked at me as a person, not as a number or as a room number.” And for anyone who wants to become a nurse, she encourages them to explore the many sides of nursing, and to treat every day like it's your first—or last, or only day on the job.

“Nursing is a work of heart,” she said. “No matter what field that you work in nursing, you just do it with your all,” she said. “I've been doing it for 47 years, and I plan to do it at least another 10.”   