After More Than 40 Years in Nursing, Tina Shines as Care Pro
Tina Barr has taken care of people for nearly her entire adult life. While now serving seniors one-on-one on behalf of Home Instead® of Mount Airy, North Carolina, Tina simply has shifted gears. Five months after she joined Home Instead, Tina was honored as the award-winning franchise’s Care Professional of the Month for August.
“I am a retired RN who did not want to return to the nursing profession, although I loved it while I was working in it,” said Tina, who also served as her late husband Frankie’s full-time family caregiver for 10 years before he passed away in 2021 following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, Tina took care of her parents before they passed away.
Tina kept her husband of 45 years at home with her except for a brief five-week period. “It was an honor and privilege to care for all of the patients who I had during my 40-plus-year medical career. But the greatest privilege was caring for my parents and my husband,” Tina said.
Explaining the turn in her journey to Home Instead, Tina recalled: “A close friend knew I was looking for a job because of an unfortunate circumstance and showed me a magazine ad for Home Instead, along with another company that provides similar services. During the first opportunity I had available, I went to the Home Instead office, filled out the paperwork and I was hired on the spot. I was shocked and thrilled.”
A Home Instead office staff member noted that Tina lives Home Instead’s guiding principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.” For Tina, touching lives impacts her soul, whether she is providing physical help such as light housekeeping, meal preparation, medication reminders or personal care or if she is offering emotional support in a companionship role. The staff member simply added: “Tina has a servant’s heart.”
Another Home Instead office staff member said: “Tina is such a joy. We wish everyone could meet Tina and hear her stories. She is beyond the representation of what a Home Instead Care Pro should be.”
Tina offered: “The clients whom I serve with Home Instead have been and are totally delightful. Each one has been a blessing to me, filling my need to still be a caregiver, just in a different way than I was doing while in my nursing career.”
She added: “I think other than attending to their needs, my greatest pleasure with the clients I have had is hearing their stories about their lives. Each one has had so many to share. These stories about their lives have been part of what has made each one who they are and the gift they each are to the world in which we live. I have been made better by being with them and learning about them.”
One of Tina’s favorite inspirational quotes originated in a prayer by Christian author and theologian John Piper: "Lord, let me make a difference for you that is utterly disproportionate to who I am."
Tina is an important part of the Care Pro team at the Surry County franchise, a member of a network comprised of Home Instead, Inc. and its parent company, Honor. With the world’s largest home-care network and the most advanced care platform, Honor and Home Instead are revolutionizing care for older adults, their families and Care Pros.
