24. A Nurse Speaks Out!

I Become a Nurse

From earliest childhood, I wanted to be a nurse.

My family lived in a coal mining community in the beautiful mountains of southwest Virginia. The big mining company provided two regular doctors and one nurse to serve the community.

My family loved those two doctors and the nurse. Whenever someone was sick or a baby needed to be delivered, the doctors would go to their homes to treat them while Mrs Livingston stayed in the office.

Mrs Livingston was my role model. My sister, Ann, and I wanted to be just like her. In that dirty coal mining dusty environment, she was always dressed in her long-sleeved, white, crispy starched uniform. She personified dignity and compassion.

Since we lived near the doctors' office, I had many contacts with their patients. My family operated a restaurant and they would wait there. At times, victims from mining accidents would come to our restaurant so they could lie down while waiting for the ambulance. At times, I accompanied patients to the doctors' office.

We had a hospital about 10 miles away, but most sick persons stayed at home. The doctors would visit them there. Only the sickest of patients were taken to the hospital.

After graduating from Grundy High School in 1949, spending 2⅓ years at Radford College studying business, serving as secretary in a hardware wholesale firm and then Secretary to the Chief Bridge Engineer at the Virginia Department of Highways in Richmond Virginia, I entered the Saint Luke's Hospital School of Nursing in 1952.

I had at long last started on the road to being a nurse!

I loved St. Luke's, my friends there, the doctors, and the patients. I was extremely happy.

My First Inkling That Something's Wrong in Health Care

In my beginning years as a student nurse, I was so happy to be part of the medical team that I saw nothing wrong with it. However, one day a big crack came into my "glorious bubble."

St. Luke's Hospital was located on a very busy intersection. One evening there was a bad car accident at the intersection, and a person was injured. Bystanders came rushing into the hospital seeking help for the injured. I was the nurse on duty, and I immediately called for the medical student who lived at the hospital and took emergency calls at night.

He came and evaluated the victim's condition. He told me the victim was in a great deal of pain, and he ordered an injection of a pain reliever, which I immediately gave.

The ambulance had been called for the victim. It had to come from the Medical College of Virginia which was all the way downtown and would take several minutes to get to the victim. St. Luke's was a privately owned hospital and did not have an emergency room.

Well, when the supervisor came, the med student was immediately rebuked for ordering an injection to be given to this victim. The med student said, "I was just thinking of the patient." I learned then that the patient's well-being lagged far behind money and red tape.

I Ask a Profound Question

One night at St. Luke's, we were working extremely hard to save the life of a man. His condition seemed hopeless to me.

I asked his doctor, "Why should we work so hard to save a life when his condition is so obviously hopeless?"

His doctor answered my question by saying that, "New medicines are being discovered all the time and we never know when something will be discovered that will cure the patient. We try to keep them alive as long as possible in case of a new discovery that might save his life."

Why Are We Here?

In 1955, after graduating from St. Luke's, I started working in labor and delivery at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia.

One night around 3 o'clock in the morning, while waiting for a patient to get ready for delivery, several medical students, interns, residents and the two nurses got into a discussion about the questions: "Why are we here at 3 a.m. and why did we become doctors and nurses?"

Each person was to state his or her reasons for being there and then the question would be passed to the next person. Doctor after doctor stated that they had become doctors for the money, and prestige in the community.

When it was my turn, I said I had become a nurse because I cared for the sick and wanted to help them.

Well, you should have heard the roar of laughter that came from the group. "Do people still believe that way?" My answer so shook up the group that no one else answered the questions.

Well, I did become a nurse because I cared for the sick. I cared for them in 1955 and I still care for them today. They were startled by my answers, but I was more startled at theirs.