After nearly 50 years of dedicated service at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Tommy Covington, RN, retired from the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases where he worked with cancer patients and families his entire career at CHLA.

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Night Shift Nurse Tommy Covington checks in on patient Teiya Van Meter, 6, at Children’s Hospital Lo ...

Night Shift Nurse Tommy Covington checks in on patient Teiya Van Meter, 6, at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Covington retired from the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at CHLA on Jan. 6, 2017. (Photo: Business Wire)

Covington is the kind of caretaker who is admired by colleagues and adored by patients and families. A soft-spoken, teddy-bear-like veteran, Covington is a legend at CHLA where he worked the night shift (7 pm to 7 am) on the hematology-oncology floor for the bulk of his 46-year career.

“Since June 20, 1970, I have worked on this floor,” Covington proudly states, noting that his preference for working three 12-hour shifts during the evening each week was in part to hit better traffic flow when commuting from his Valencia, Calif., home.

But his real reason for working nights? “You’re working during a period that most people don’t want to work and I wanted to try to give all I could.”

Covington says his nursing career actually started in 1964 by accident. He was originally attending school to become an optical lens grinder. Following President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Covington says the country shifted. Society was different and he felt compelled to get involved, so he volunteered to enlist in the Navy. He was called into action and told he could either be a ship fitter (a mechanic) or a dental technician. Neither assignment thrilled him. He expressed his interest in the medical field and was sent to corps school in San Diego for 16 weeks, followed by an assignment as a hospital corpsman doing bedside nursing in Corpus Christi, Texas. Covington took care of injured, sick and maimed members of the military who were serving in Vietnam.

In 1966, Covington was sent to Guam for 17 months, intermittently taking part in several medical missions to Vietnam, before returning to San Diego in 1968. He went to Los Angeles Trade Tech College and was told there was a shortage of male nurses, so he enrolled in the RN program – despite the fact that many people questioned his decision to enter “a female profession. Why don’t you be a doctor?” he says.

Soon after he was sent to CHLA, finding a home on the hematology-oncology floor, perhaps one of the hardest places to work in a children’s hospital. Covington’s military background helped form a tireless work ethic and poise when facing the challenging health situations his patients endure.

“It’s difficult,” he says of his work with cancer patients. “I try to live in the now and let the future develop around me. Many of my patients succumbed to their disease. And we worked toward a finale of them dying. But when there was remission or a recovery we rejoiced in that too.”

Over the decades, Covington has remained in contact with many patients, many of whom have gone off to pursue nursing careers, following in his footsteps. And he has also stayed in touch with families whose children were treated by him at CHLA. “We communicate throughout the year with phone calls and holiday cards and it’s wonderful,” Covington says. One family, whose child died 20 years ago, has remained in close contact with Covington. “We fish together, we email, we talk and we reminisce about their child we took care of and the love we shared.”

Covington has helped many children fight cancer over the years including Teiya Van Meter, a 6 year-old cancer patient who was in-patient during Tommy’s last shift at CHLA. “It’s like a family here at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and we’re really going to miss Tommy Covington,” says Tarra Van Meter, Teiya’s mother.

While he never intended to work in pediatrics, “I fell in love with the kids here,” Covington says. In 1983, he fell in love with his wife Laurie, who is a staffing coordinator at CHLA. The couple has a son, Joe, who also works in CHLA’s staffing department. “We’re a close-knit family. We work different shifts at the hospital, but I like knowing they are right there,” Covington says.

During Covington’s nursing career at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, he has received many awards and accolades, including the distinguished nursing DAISY Award in recognition for his compassion, clinical skills and care of so many cancer patients at CHLA. Most recently, in November 2016, he was acknowledged for his outstanding contributions with the National Health Foundation’s Hospital Hero award. “Tommy Covington has been an amazing part of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and I would like to thank Tommy for his dedication, loyalty and service to our patients and families for nearly 50 years, says Nancy Lee, RN, MSN, NEA-BC, Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer. He has helped thousands of patients and families through very difficult times in his career as a nurse. He will be missed by all.”

“Love is the reason I do what I do,” Covington says. “Even though at times it was painful when you had a loss. It’s rewarding. I loved my job.”