Darlene Morrell is the new director of nursing at Riverside Convalescent Center in Mathews. With 31 years of experience, the new Mathews resident began work on March 7, overseeing all the managerial tasks of the nursing department, including assuring regulatory compliance in resident care, hiring staff, handling disciplinary matters, and helping out as needed when short-handed at the 60-bed facility.

A native of Nova Scotia, Canada, Morrell came to the U.S. in 1992 as a traveling nurse because there were no jobs in Canada at the time. She landed in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, met her future husband, and ended up in Bristol, Tennessee, where she spent the next 30 years, raising a son while continuing her education and building a career.

After 10 years as a clinical nurse, working in cardiac intensive care and cardiac surgery, Morrell went into the administrative end of the profession. She became a health supervisor, along the way opening two new facilities—an ambulatory surge...