Heart of Health: Vivian MacLeod marks 50 years of service

With The Heart of Health series, we’re shining a light on the many dedicated employees, physicians, learners and volunteers who make Nova Scotia Health such a remarkable place to work and receive care. Today we’re featuring Vivian MacLeod, a secretary with Public Health in New Glasgow. 

Vivian MacLeod has worked in nearly every corner of Nova Scotia’s healthcare system: X-ray, mental health, laboratory services, medical records and, currently, public health.

Vivian has spent half a century with the organization and now, at 70, she’s contemplating retirement, a step she may take later this year.

Her first job was in her native Cape Breton working in the X-ray department at the Sydney City Hospital where she started in August 1976. These days, she is an administrative assistant with the health protection team in Northern Zone, an area encompassing the Colchester-East Hants, Cumberland and Pictou areas.

“I’m a bit of a dinosaur,” she says, jokingly, “but the work has been so rewarding. I’ve loved every minute of it.”

Vivian grew up dreaming of becoming a nurse. Life took her in a different direction, but she stayed close to medicine.  After completing a medical secretary program in Peterborough, Ontario, she returned home and quickly found work in diagnostic imaging. Over two decades, she typed everything from angiograms to nuclear medicine reports.

Her career moved when her family moved. She first joined the Glace Bay General Hospital lab department. When the family relocated in 2001 to Pictou County she taught medical terminology and transcription at the local community college.  A year later, she was back in the hospital corridors, working in X-ray and EKG-supporting roles at Aberdeen Hospital.

In 2005, she found her professional home with the team at public health.

Vivian has spent over 20 years supporting a busy health protection staff in vaccine management, communicable disease control and general daily operations. She retired briefly in March 2016, but colleagues convinced her to return when there was a job opening.

Her institutional memory proved vital and she felt a sense of belonging with Public Health. “I had the knowledge base and walked right back into my job," she recalls.

“I’ve always worked with kind, compassionate people. That helped solidify the passion I have for the work,” she explains.

Vivian loves the communicable disease tasks, in particular. “It never gets old because there’s always something new to learn.”

Meanwhile, Vivian’s greatest personal joys are her four children and six grandchildren, some of whom tease her a bit about the upcoming milestone of five decades in the healthcare field.

“They say, ‘Who cares?’,” she says, adding, with a chuckle, “and I say, ‘Well, I do.’”

We want to learn and share your stories. Whether you’ve had a defining moment that reaffirmed your purpose or want to recognize a colleague who embodies the heart of health, share your story with us. Email: keith1.corcoran@nshealth.ca