Oral History Program Phyllis Naegle Purdy Interviewed by Marci Farr 27 August 2008 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Phyllis Naegle Purdy Interviewed by Marci Farr 27 August 2008 Copyright © 2009 by Weber State University, Stewart Library Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in Special Collections. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Dee School of Nursing was founded in 1910 to provide training for nurses who would staff the new Dee Memorial Hospital. The first class of eight nurses graduated from the school in 1913 and the school continued to operate until 1955, with a total of more than 700 graduates. A new nursing school and home located just east of the hospital was completed in 1917 and all nursing students were required to live in the home during their training. This oral history project was created to capture the memories of the school's alumni before their stories disappear in the same way the Dee Hospital has disappeared. The oral interviews focus on how the women became involved with the school, their experiences going through training, and how they used the training. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management Special Collections All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Phyllis Naegle Purdy, an oral history by Marci Farr, 27 August 2008, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Phyllis Naegle Purdy Application Photo 1935 Graduation Photo Class of 1941 Phyllis Naegle Purdy and Family 2008 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Phyllis Naegle Purdy. It was conducted August 27, 2008 and concerns her recollections and experiences with the Dee School of Nursing. The interviewer is Marci Farr. MF: This is Marci Farr. We are interviewing Phyllis Naegle Purdy at her home in Ogden, Utah. It is August 27, 2008. She graduated from the Dee School of Nursing in 1941. Is that correct? PP: Yes. MF: Tell us a little bit about your early life and where you grew up and your family. PP: I was a child of the depression and when I graduated from high school there was not much for me. My dad was poor as most people were. And so the only opening to me was to go in nurses training. It would cost very little, it did cost some, and it gave me three years to grow up because I had nothing to do after high school. I was just adrift. When I got in training, we used to talk about our lives. I found out I was not the only one in this situation. It wasn’t like I desired to save the world. We lived together for three years, and became kind of like sisters. We still contact each other. MF: Why did you decide on the Dee Hospital? PP: I decided on the Dee Hospital because my aunt lived in Ogden. She was the one who looked after me; because my mother died when I was eleven. A lot of people were poor in those days. No one really had room for another person in their homes. I am glad I did. I joined the Navy Nurse Corps soon after I got out of training; I felt it was my patriotic duty. MF: Where did you serve? 1 PP: First, I went to Mare Island, California and then I went to New Zealand then New Caledonia then Guadalcanal then St. Albans at Long Island, New York. MF: You had quite the adventure. PP: Yes I did. I was in there two and a half years. I learned a lot, war is Hell! I got out in the world. It was a good experience for me. Every U.S. Naval Hospital was well managed. I really did like New Zealand. If I had to live in any other country, I would take New Zealand, if they would have me! MF: That would be the one you choose. PP: It really is a nice, just nice place to live. Everybody treated us good down there. MF: So you did that for the duration of the war? PP: Yes I did, for two and a half years, then peace was declared and then I came home. MF: That is a great story. When you started nurses training were you surprised at how strict they were? PP: No it wasn’t a shock to me because I had grown up and never did anything out of the way…well not too far out of the way. MF: You had a roommate for all three years, correct? PP: Well I had a roommate for one year and then she and a friend who had graduated from the same high school wanted to live together and I said okay. There were a few single rooms in the school of nursing and so I took one of those. MF: So what was a typical day like when you started your shift work? 2 PP: We had schedules. We took turns working difference hours. We had classes to attend. We had R.N.s and M.D.s for our instructors. We were affiliated with Weber State. Sometimes we went to the college for our classes; sometimes the professors would come to our school. We spent our allotted time in the nursing departments: surgical, medical, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics, nursery, diet and nutrition. We were treated very well—but we were expected to follow the rules. MF: While you were in training you had a housemother that was in charge of all the nurses, correct? PP: Yes we had a housemother. She kind of looked after us. The first one we had wasn’t very good. She left early but the second one was more motherly. MF: She kind of took care of you and made sure you were alright. PP: Yes. MF: If you had a night off what was something you would do? PP: We had Saturday night off; we didn’t have to be in till twelve. Otherwise we had to be in by ten o’clock. As I said, my social life wasn’t all that great but I did have my aunt and she was very good to me. When I had my day off I would go see her or I had some friends over or we went to a movie. So it was very pleasant because I didn’t expect much and went right along with the rules. MF: Now at that time were you required to attend church on Sunday if you didn’t work? PP: No we were not required to attend church. MF: It was a choice? 3 PP: Yes. I guess it depends on the school of nursing they went to because we were not required to. MF: So did you know any of the members of the Dee family? PP: No I did not know any members of the Dee family. MF: Did you know Elizabeth Stewart? PP: I knew who she was, and we knew who Thomas D. Dee was. MF: When you completed your training you went into the navy. And then after that you were married. PP: I got married after I got out of the navy. I had five children. MF: I am sure your nursing served you well there too. PP: Well, I think it did. The kids have told me they appreciated it. MF: Yes, so everything was taken care of. PP: I was the only nurse in the neighborhood. I’m not saying that I was the greatest but I was the only one. MF: But you could help out where you could. PP: I did. They came to me and I had to decide if they needed stitches or they came to me and I got slivers out of fingers or specks out of eyes. One woman said, “I can always tell when my kids get hurt down to your place because they come home with a nice bandage on.” I was always on some health committee, like P.T.A. I gave shots under the doctor’s supervision, for allergies, in the neighborhood. It was nice that they could come and at least get my opinion and if I could not handle the situation I would just tell them. MF: Exactly so they would trust your judgment. 4 PP: Yes. MF: How do you think nurses training and also nurses working have changed over the years? PP: Well see I haven’t worked after I married. I always say that the only thing that is the same when I was nursing and now, is that people still get sick. That is a slight exaggeration. MF: And you learned everything on every floor. Nowadays it is more specialized. You specialize in one area maybe for labor and delivery or whatever. PP: We went through the whole thing including the delivery room and the nursery. MF: What was your favorite on all the floors that you worked on while you were in the hospital? PP: Well I actually didn’t really have a favorite. I rather like pediatrics because the children were so darling. And you felt sorry for the ones that were really sick. It was sad too when not only the children died but when one of your adult patients died too. You had to deal with it but it gets you used to accepting suffering. MF: You would have to, to be able to do that job. PP: I have talked to several people just the other day. These people came to visit me from Florida and we were talking about nursing. She said, “I could never do that because the blood and the suffering would…” MF: It would be too much. PP: Yes. MF: Yes, mine would be needles. PP: Needles huh? 5 MF: I hate needles. It takes someone special to be able to do that. PP: I kind of got used to it. It wasn’t that I shrugged it off because we all have feelings. MF: It still affects you. PP: Yes. MF: But you would be able to cope with it better. PP: Yes you do. Coping, that is a good word. MF: So you had your yearbook, this was your senior… PP: This is the senior one because I was in the class of 1941. I was the humor editor. I left in ’41 and never went back to the Dee to work. 6