After nearly five decades of loving her work, Winnie Doyle is set to retire
For close to five decades, Winnie Doyle’s work life has been guided by a key principle that ensured a varied career full of change and opportunity, “I wanted to love my work.”
And love it, she has. Although, the young Australian woman who enrolled in a diploma nursing program in the early 70s had no premonition of the well-respected, influential, health care executive she would become.
A commanding presence, unhesitatingly decisive, an ability to restore calm in times of turbulence, all attributes gained from years of frontline work. But these qualities could just as easily have been instilled at home. Growing up the fourth eldest of nine children, a busy household provided its own life lessons.
“I shared a room with five sisters. You learned to get along.”
Dynamic female role models weren’t hard to come by. Her great-aunt was a WWII Commander-in-Chief of Australian nurses, another aunt, politically active in Australia championing women’s issues, and her sisters are all strong individuals. And of course, there is the woman who raised nine children.
“My mother is not a dominant person, but she’s a very strong woman, a very stoic individual,” adds Winnie. “My grandmother was very similar.”
And yet leadership was never at the forefront of career plans. Bedside nursing was where it began, in a 700-bed teaching hospital in Sydney.
“Expectations were high. If you didn’t make the mark you were spoken to sharply and consistently. But I loved the pressure to learn.”
It was an environment that provided great experience to someone embarking on a new profession, but there was also a want for adventure. With a diploma and a year of work behind her, Winnie made her way to Britain. She expanded her skillset with sub-specialty training in mental health, and becoming a midwife. It was also in this part of the world where long-term plans would begin to take shape after meeting a Canadian man who would eventually become her husband and entice her to settle in Hamilton.
Newly married, Winnie joined St. Joe’s in 1983 as a staff nurse in mental health, and continued her schooling to earn a degree. Always interested in exploring new facets, she took a turn working with outpatients in community psychiatry, the women’s health concerns clinic, and also spent time as a research assistant. Each change was driven by the want to love her work as a nurse.
“In nursing, there are many ordinary moments, but in those ordinary moments there are things that are extraordinary.”
Her introduction to leadership came as a surprise rather than a goal, initially rebuffing suggestions she apply for a management post in mental health.
“I said, ‘absolutely not. I don’t want to be a manager,’ I was quite happy with what I was doing.”
But after a serious nudge by a colleague, she reconsidered, applied and got the position. Admitting it was a major learning curve, she credits her success in the role to former boss, Anne Howe.
“She was a great mentor and supporter, and a fabulous clinician.”
From there, a steady upwards trajectory began over the next 20 years. Director of Nursing, Mental Health in 2000. Chief Nursing Executive in 2001, Executive Vice President, Mental Health 2002, Executive Vice President, Acute Clinical Programs, 2005. Executive Vice President, Clinical Programs, 2016.
“It wasn’t a barrier being a woman, although when I first became a V.P., at that stage only 3 per cent of CEOs in Ontario were women.”
While others may have seen a glass ceiling at that point, Winnie saw the open sky above, and the lifetime of possibilities that she’d always kept in sight. The pinnacle came in 2018 when Winnie was named Interim President.
Reflecting on her rise up the leadership ladder, Winnie remains humble, shining the spotlight on those who worked alongside her.
“If you work with a team, it’s amazing what you can learn, and people help you.”
The richness of that experience is still appealing today.
“I could go back to front line nursing and be very happy doing it.”
But as an avid gardener Winnie knows that, for anything to grow, there has to be room.
“I feel very strongly that everybody has their best by date.”
And so her final contribution to an amazing career at St. Joseph’s is to allow others to have the opportunity and experience that she has enjoyed for more than three decades … even though she admits, it will be hard.
“I haven’t lost this love of what I do.”
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