Gina Myracle retires as executive director of the Alice and Carl Kirkland Cancer Center, Friday. Grace Media Group – NEWS/TALK 101.5 FM, 93.1 FM & WNWS.COM visited with Gina for a question and answer session to discuss her career and what she has in store for retirement.

Question: First a little background information – where are you originally from, family and education?

Answer: I was actually born at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital. I was raised in Lexington Tennessee, attended school there and even though I moved away briefly we moved back to Lexington and raised our own family there.

I’m married to Dudley and we have two daughters, one of which followed me into healthcare and the other chose elementary education.

I attended Union University and received my nursing degree which opened the door for my healthcare career.

Question: Would you tell us what made you decide you wanted to pursue a career in the medical industry, when you first started working for West Tennessee Healthcare, and what was your position when you first started?

Answer: I started college with the intent to go into education, however a roommate who turned into a lifelong friend was in the nursing program. I would help her study and listen to her stories from her clinical time and it did not take me long to see how much this peaked my interest and excited me.

I began the nursing program the next year. I worked as a nursing assistant during college, took a week off after graduation, and went to work at Jackson General the next week.

I began as a graduate nurse working with cardiac patients in CCU and the step-down unit.

This was in 1980 when healthcare in Jackson looked very different. As CCU nurses, after opening the cardiac catheterization labs, if a patient was in need for cardiovascular surgery, we would have to ride with them in an ambulance to Memphis.

Because we worked evenings and night shifts, we would spend our days riding with patients.

In the next few years the cardiothoracic program began, and patients could have all of their needs met in Jackson.

Question: What were your thoughts when you first learned the Alice and Carl Kirkland Cancer Center would be constructed, and what were your thoughts when you first learned you would be the executive director?

Answer: From 1980 until 1997, I was asked to move around in the healthcare system quite a bit. As we were growing as a system, many opportunities opened up for me to work in some different areas of healthcare.

This was a great learning experience which also gave me the opportunity to build so many relationships with other staff and physicians through the years.

In my opinion, this is one of the awesome things about being a nurse with a desire to learn and experience new opportunities – the ability to work in any area of healthcare.

In 1997, I was asked to move from home care administrator to be the administrator of the oncology or cancer service line.

I was hesitant because I knew very little about cancer as a disease and nothing about cancer treatment.

So I was very thankful to have the years that I had to learn from the experts and skilled providers we had in oncology. All the oncologists in the community – were and are – excellent leaders and teachers willing to share their abundance of knowledge.

I was blown away with the enormity of this field of medicine. We deal with not only one type of disease but there are hundreds of different types of cancer.

Question: When did the Center first open,  and would you tell us about the growth – and success – of the Center?

Answer: Carl and Alice Kirkland gave us their generous donation in 2010, and we began strategic planning on the growth and the needs of our cancer program.

This included looking at the growth in the volume of cancer diagnosis projecting in the years ahead. After many site visits to other cancer centers across the country and working with architects to plan and design our cancer center, we broke ground in August 2012, and treated our first radiation patient in December 2014.

We phased in all our services, staff, and providers to help the transition be as smooth as possible for our patients and families, and were fully operational in April 2014.

From month-to-month, and year-to-year we saw a large increase in the volume of patients, and services provided.

Each time we hit a “record high” we thought we had reached our peak, but we continue to see increases in different services.

The most significant success is due to the support of the West Tennessee Healthcare system by them giving us the support we have needed to provide comprehensive cancer services to our patients.

We are able to offer social services, nutritional support, patient education regarding the disease, drugs and other treatments, physical therapy, patient ambassadors, and more.

We have been successful because of the people who work here due to the fact that they understand we are taking care of friends and family.

Question: How special is the Center considering patients can receive treatment in Jackson instead of going to Memphis or Nashville?

Answer: The Kirkland Cancer Center is a very special place. We have many vendors and visiting physicians tell us this is one of the nicest centers they have seen.

The difference we have is our staff lives in this community and they understand we are taking care of someone’s loved one in the same community they live. Our goal was to build and design a center that would give our community a choice for their cancer and hematology needs.

In the past, because the services that were provided in Jackson were spread out on different floors of the hospital and different physician clinics. The concept of a comprehensive cancer center with all the community’s hematologist/oncologist working together as a team and partnering with the healthcare system to make decisions and leading the operations and the planning of the cancer center.

This has been a very stressful but very rewarding opportunity for me. The center’s success at achieving our mission has definitely been the pinnacle of my 43-year career in healthcare.

The relationships with staff and physicians which I have made will forever be in my heart.

So many memories of the people I have encountered and met who I would not have if not for this role and the confidence that the healthcare system leadership put into me.

I love learning new things and I love meeting new people, so this has been a dream job for me.

Question: How does Gina plan on enjoying her retirement?

Answer: Rest, enjoy not having any more 7 a.m meetings … a much slower pace and more than anything – enjoying my family.

I have four beautiful grandchildren I love spending time with – following their sports and play, enjoying school programs, and being able to enjoy things during the day without it conflicting with my work schedule.

We have recently built our forever home on the farm in which Dudley was raised. We have cows, lots of space for our grandchildren, a garden, and a great front porch to spend time reflecting on our blessings.

I have a wonderful family, an active church, fun friends, and nice home on our farm to fill my days. Of all the titles I have had thru the years, Gigi is my favorite and most fun!

(PHOTO: Gina Myracle is recognized by James Ross, CEO, West Tennessee Healthcare at the Board of Trustees monthly meeting at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital)