Nursing instructor retires after 23 years

    By Megan Guilfoyle and Amanda Padilla
    IV Leader Staff

    With the end of the spring semester approaching, nursing instructor, Judith Krafcky has announced her retirement. She has been teaching nursing classes at Illinois Valley Community College for the past 23 years.
    With a master's degree is in nursing, Krafcky is currently working in clinical mostly with her students. But in the past, Krafcky has taught Fundamentals of Nursing, Medical-Surgical Nursing courses, Pharmacology, Physical Assessment, and other classes at IVCC.
    Krafcky has been a registered nurse for 44 years and has been teaching for the past 30 years.
    Krafcky said that her favorite thing about teaching is, "Passing on all my experiences and knowledge to students who in the future will most likely be taking care of me."
    One thing Krafcky liked about IVCC was teaching freshmen. She liked sharing stories and her experiences with them and she liked being able to relate to her students.
    Krafcky noted, "My favorite memories are teaching the students in their first nursing course and seeing how much they have advanced in the last nursing course (which I am teaching right now)."
    She will be retiring at the end of May 2006.
    She added, "I am going to miss the other nursing instructors who are so supportive, especially those individuals who cared for me when I was going through with my treatment for breast cancer.
    "It's been a fun career, but I am ready to retire," Krafcky said, but then added that maybe she could take some classes so she could be a student again.
    After retirement, Krafcky plans to "continue with my gardening, traveling, camping, hiking, biking, canoeing, tubing, reading, etc."
    Krafcky is mostly interested in volunteering. "If I wasn't here, I would be down volunteering at the hurricane [Katrina] clinics." She also added that she may enjoy volunteering in hospitals, but she has no plans on working part-time in a hospital.
    Presently, the IVCC Nursing Department is in the process of looking for two nursing instructors to replace Krafcky.
    "She was a true asset to this department," said Gloria Bouxsein, director of nursing. She also added, "Everybody will miss her, including students and faculty."
    Bouxsein said that Krafcky was not only a mentor to her, but also other faculty and students.
    "We hope that she has a happy retirement," said Bouxsein. "She is always welcome to come back to teach if she wants to," Bouxsein added lightheartedly.