Meet Trudy Byington, Your Community Nurse

It was a name tag worn by a friend that got Trudy Byington, Westminster’s community nurse, into nursing. Trudy had been working in a factory for thirteen years, and she and her husband had a three-year-old son and a set of twins on the way, when she saw the name tag that read “G.N.” She was curious.
It turned out that the friend had earned her licensed practical nurse degree, then attended New Hampshire Technical College for a year to become a registered nurse.

“I said ‘I can’t do four years, but I can do two years,’” said Trudy. So she took two years of evening classes while still working, then, as she says, “we took the plunge and said we’ll suffer through.” She quit her job in 1989 and went to school full-time at New Hampshire Technical College. “My mother [Henriette Swarts, a Westminster resident since 2009] was my biggest support, along with my husband [Rob],” Trudy said.

After graduating in 1991, and getting her R.N. license, Trudy worked at Cheshire Medical Center in Keene and then the Visiting Nurses Association, where she stayed for more than seventeen years. “I got a lot of experience, and met a lot of people in the community,” she said.

When Ronnie Friedman, Westminster Cares’ executive director, was looking for a community nurse in 2010, Trudy was ready to turn to more direct dealing with patients, and took the job. She also works part-time in some of the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union schools.

Trudy was born Trudy Swarts in the Netherlands, and then immigrated to Canada with her family when she was a year old. They moved to the U.S. when Trudy was four, and two years later to Bellows Falls.

As the community nurse, Trudy is referred by Westminster Cares to elderly and adults with disabilities who may not be eligible for home-based services from other agencies and organizations. Her care is free. She does nonemergency care, such as foot care and wound care, helps with medication, blood pressure checks and lots of assessment.

Many of her calls are to people who are unsure what they need. Are they ill enough to call a doctor? What should they do? Their health is starting to fail; what are their options?

“It’s a lot of education,” Trudy said. “Often it’s reinstruction of things people have already learned, like how to administer insulin. Often they just need somebody to talk to and to tell them what resources are out there. And it’s often connecting people back with their families. A lot of it is reassurance – is what I have normal or not?”

“I still like home care best, especially dealing with the elderly, ” she says.
If you think you or a loved one could use Trudy’s services, call Westminster Cares at 722-3607.