Oral History Program Glorya Stokes Telleson Interviewed by Marci Farr 19 August 2008 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Glorya Stokes Telleson Interviewed by Marci Farr 19 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: Glorya Stokes Telleson an oral history by Marci Farr, 19 August 2008, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Glorya Stokes Telleson Application Photo 1950 Graduation Photo Class of 1954 Glorya Stokes Telleson August 19, 2008 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Glorya Stokes Telleson. It was conducted August 19, 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 Glorya Stokes Telleson. She graduated with the class of 1954 from the Dee School of Nursing. It is August 19, 2008. We are interviewing her at her home in Roy, Utah. Tell us about your early life, where you grew up, how many were in your family, where you went to school. GT: I was born at the old Dee hospital. I always said I fell asleep as a baby and woke up in uniform. I always wanted to be a nurse. As a child, I would take care of the little animals (pets in the neighborhood); if they weren’t hurt, we would bandage them up anyway. So I had a little experience before I began nurses’ training. I graduated from Ogden High School. I was offered two scholarships for training. One was a full scholarship to the Dee and the other was a scholarship fund for any school of nursing. MF: Why did you decide the Dee Hospital? GT: I chose the Dee because I liked the program they had. I had received a scholarship there. I chose the Dee over St. Benedicts (school of nursing) because St. Ben’s was a new School of Nursing and I felt like I would get a broader experience at the Dee. I had heard from a lot of nurses who felt that the Dee had the best program in the area. We also received college credits for the classes at Weber College (now WSU). At that time the college was located on 25th and Jefferson. As students it was not uncommon to walk from 24th and Harrison Blvd. to the college. 1 MF: What were your first impressions when you walked in? Were you surprised about the strictness or was it you just knew that was part of how it was going to be? GT: I worked the summer after high school graduation and before entering nursing training in the operating room at the Dee Hospital. My duties were to clean the used instruments and rinse out the bloody linen before sending it to the laundry. I watched the nurses working there and knew what nursing would entail. It was a good experience. MF: It wasn’t too much shock. GT: It wasn’t a big shock to me. I was impressed with the surgeries. I was very interested in the Operating Room; and when I graduated, I requested that for my first area of employment. MF: You said you had some of the classes that were taught at Weber College and you had some at the nurses home? GT: Yes. During our first year we had class both at Weber College and the Nurses’ Home. Many times the physicians would come to the Nurses Home and lecture about their discipline. The classes (like Chemistry and those required) were taught at the college. MF: So you could get credit with Weber? GT: Yes. MF: So do you remember who some of your instructors were? GT: Three stand out in my mind; Marie Donaldson, LaPriel Neville, and Ruth Brown. Marie Donaldson was so capable; I wanted to be like her. LaPriel Neville taught 2 Nursing Arts with great compassion. She really taught me what it was to be a nurse. The irony was that when she was old, she was a patient of mine and received from me the nursing care she had taught me long ago. Ruth Brown taught me accountability and accuracy. She was the Supervisor of the Student Nurses on the Medical Floor. If our assignment was to pass medications, we could count on a period of question and answer regarding the drugs in use sometime during the day. Using the drugs we were administering that shift, she would question us regarding their usage—classification of drug, its general use, its usual dosage, and expected outcome, possible reaction. As a student, we darn well better know it because she did not believe we should be administering medicines we were not familiar with. She was a super teacher. MF: Yes, we interviewed her. GT: Ruth Brown was a stickler. Sometimes when we would be on medicine and that would be our responsibility on the floor she would come in and she would say, “Are you all through?” And I would say, “Yes.” And she would say, “Oh good, now we are going to look through the medicine and I want you to tell me what its name is, what it is used for, how the body responds to it, what are the expected outcomes, what are the adverse reactions?” And you would go through that medicine chest and all those medicines and she would ask you point blank and you darn well better know it because she did not feel that we should be giving medicines that we did not understand. She was a super teacher. MF: A lot of people have said that she was great and they learned so much. GT: I learned a lot from her. 3 MF: You learned a lot because you couldn’t second guess. You have to know. GT: Yes. She also taught us to clean up after ourselves. The hospital did not hire people to do that. When we were first year students, we were expected to do a lot of the cleaning. We literally scrubbed bedpans clean and sterilized bedpans. I left the duty station, went to the nurses’ home, showered and put up my hair in rollers for the next day, and got into bed. A knock came at the door. It was the night supervisor who informed me that I was to return to the floor and take care of the things I had not put away. I had to take the curlers out of my hair, get completely dressed in my uniform, and return to the floor to put away the things I had not put away. I then returned to the nurses’ home. That only happened once! MF: And you couldn’t go in your pajamas? GT: No. You went in full uniform. MF: You had a roommate while you were in the nurses home, correct? GT: Do you know Sue Naisbitt? MF: We have not met her yet. GT: Sue is special. She is so fun to be around. I was married in my senior year and lived off campus. Sue and Bonnie Judkins roomed together then. I was an occasional roommate with them. We were really like sisters. I still feel very close to them. MF: That is good. GT: We didn’t have any “little groups here” and “little groups there.” We would all join together. 4 MF: You had to rely on each other though. GT: Oh yes. And you studied together. Sometimes just before a big test we would get together (after bed check) in one room and cram late into the night. We helped each other through. Sometimes when one of us had an interesting patient we would share our experience with each other. We learned from each other that way. We were close and have stayed close all these years. MF: I think that is the reason your association is still what it is. GT: I think so. MF: Because of what you all went through. GT: Living three years with a group of girls, you become sisters. We ate together, slept together, studied together, and sometimes dated together. I am closer to them than I am to, say, the girls that I went to high school with. MF: That is good. GT: I think so. MF: Did you have a curfew at the nursing home? GT: I have to tell you that curfew was a hard one to deal with. At 10 o’clock the doors to the Nurses’ Home were locked. If you weren’t on duty you had to be in bed by 10 o’clock. MF: That is what everybody has said. Everybody told us their escape routes, how to get in, how to get out. GT: We all learned how to get around it. We covered for each other. We made bed check for someone who hadn’t returned from a date and then hurried to our own beds in time for bed check there. In my junior year, Sue and I lived on the 5 bottom floor near the back door. More than once someone would knock on our window and we would sneak down the hall and let them in. Mrs. Peterson and Mrs. McGraw were our house mothers. They really had a thankless job. MF: And make sure you get your right room when you snuck in. GT: We covered for each other. The nursing home was locked. There was not way to get in. MF: There was no way to because if not you had to go to the hospital, right? GT: After hours, the only way to get into the Nurses’ Home was to have the Hospital Supervisor escort you to the home and let you in with her key. This way did not go unpunished. We could request time to go home. I lived in Ogden and could go home for an overnight stay with approval. MF: And have them walk you over. Unless you were supposed to be out. GT: The only ones that were supposed to be out were those that were on duty. MF: Yes. What did you do if you got a night off? GT: I did not date very much. I spent most of my time studying. My future husband was in the Navy. When he came home on leave, I spent as much time as possible with him (that was when the overnight really came in handy). When he went back we wrote each other long letters. MF: Was this during the Korean War? GT: Yes. He was stationed at San Diego, Miramar Naval Air Station. He was in the Fire Department. He did not go to Korea, but he was extended like they did the rest. 6 MF: So tell us a little bit about a typical day when you started your shift work, what did your day start out like? GT: Typical day as a probee—school and study!!! Our classes prepared us so we could give beginning nursing care. Treatments and medicine administration was handled by the older students. Once we received our caps, we began working on the floor. We gave patient care. There were very few private rooms, mostly wards and there was one big ward of 10 beds. MF: Yes if you want to start when you were a probee and then go from there. GT: Probees, we didn’t go on the floor until, I think it was six months. MF: Is that when you started your class work? GT: We did a lot of class work then and got prepared so we could be of service when we went on the floor. We didn’t have much in the way of responsibility right at first. As we became junior students and got our second stripe, then we did have much more responsibility. In many instances at night we would be the charge nurse. And we would take care of them. I remember that the old Dee had some very large patient rooms that were wards, ten patients to a ward. MF: That is a lot. GT: A lot of people were given bed baths. You didn’t get them up early like we do now. Tub baths were rare as were showers. We used screens to screen the patients receiving care. MF: You learned every floor plus work there too, correct? You had to work on every single floor. 7 GT: There were a specific number of days required (as I remember 180 days) working in each discipline: Medical, Surgical, OB/GYN/Nursery, Pediatrics and Operating Room and Emergency Room. Psychiatry and Communicable Disease were away from the hospital setting. We went to Provo Utah for Psychiatry and to the TB Hospital in Ogden for communicable disease. These were very interesting experiences. We could not graduate until we had completed the set hours in each discipline. MF: And where was the TB Hospital? GT: That was in Ogden. I think they have used it for the death and blind school. MF: Is it on 20th street? GT: No it is out farther than that. It was a long white building about 7th or somewhere along there and that is where the tuberculosis sanitarium was. At that time if you had tuberculosis you went there. You did not stay out in the communities. We went to Provo for our psychiatric training. We spent three months down there at the State hospital. That was a very interesting experience. MF: I am sure. GT: I had an interesting experience while on my psychiatric rotation. We did not always wear our uniforms. When we took the patients on walks we wore street clothes. One day when we returned the patients to the ward, there was a lot of excitement around a large aquarium. It seems a guppy fish was giving birth to babies. I had never seen this before and was fascinated by it. When the other classmates left, I stayed to watch. When it was time for dinner, I went to the nurses’ station and asked the attendant there to let me out. She was a new 8 attendant and did not know me. She patronizingly said “Yes dear, this is where we want you to stay.” When my classmates finally realized that I wasn’t at dinner, they returned to the ward and got me. Otherwise I might have had to spend the night. MF: You actually were a student. GT: And so she said, “You must stay, this is where they want you to stay.” It was about two and a half hours before the kids down in the nursing home discovered that I wasn’t there and then they came back up and got me. I thought I was going to spend the night there. Some things are really funny and they stay with you forever. MF: During your training, those two times were the only time you left the hospital? GT: Yes. We only had two rotations away from the hospital. MF: Do you remember, were there any traditions at the Dee Hospital during holidays? GT: Yes we observed all the holidays—did a lot of decorations. MF: Yes. Some remember things like they had a choir, in the earlier years they would have a choir and they would sing carols. GT: We sang a lot together, sang in harmony, but not a specific choir. Usually different groups came to the hospital and sang in the halls. MF: Were you required to attend church at that time or was it just a choice? GT: Choice. MF: Tell us a little bit about your capping and your pinning ceremony. GT: Capping ceremony was a big event. We sent out invitations to our families and friends. We wore our new capes (Navy blue with red lining) and marched from 9 the hospital to the nearby church. It was a candlelight ceremony. We each held a Florence Nightingale Lamp with a lit candle. As it came our turn to receive our cap, we knelt on the stool before our Director of Nurses (Edna Seidner), and she placed the cap on our heads. It was a special moment. MF: Who is it that did it? GT: Edna Siedner. She was our Director of Nursing. We walked from the nursing home in our full uniforms with our cape, of course with it draped over because it had red underneath and we marched from the nurses home to the church that was just around the corner. And that is where they held the capping ceremony. MF: While you were in training did you get paid? GT: We worked long hours and no, we weren’t paid. Senior students were occasionally asked to work an extra shift for which they were paid a small amount. I do not know how many in my class did that. I was married and had responsibilities at home. MF: So graduation was in 1954, right? GT: Yes. MF: Where did they have graduation at? Was that at the same place? GT: Yes. MF: It was in September. Did you know any members of the Dee family? GT: During my training years I did not know them. I saw them from time to time when they were in the hospital attending to business. After graduation, I was the Alumnae Roster chairman. I knew Elisabeth Dee Shaw because she generously sponsored the printing of the roster. I prepared the roster for 20 years. She 10 loved the nurses and couldn’t do enough for them. She was a very delightful person. MF: She was very, very sweet. GT: I have a huge picture but it isn’t in color. MF: That is a great picture. How many were in your class? Do you remember how many graduated? That is okay. GT: I don’t remember how many actually began our class, but 23 graduated. We had a boy in our class but he did not complete training. MF: In ’53 there was Ray Vandersteen who graduated. What was his name? GT: Craig Peterson. It was really hard for the boys. Because they lived in the Interns’ Quarters, they missed out on the closeness the girls had. They were pretty much alone and missed out on the fun. I suppose you have been told about the initiations. We did some rather awful things to the new kids coming in. MF: You were giving them their initiations. GT: We were initiated and so were they—what goes around comes around. Those who initiated us taught us well. I guess I cleaned and polished more shoes in that two week period than I will ever clean in my entire life! The upper classmates left their shoes outside their door and they had to be cleaned and polished shiny during the late evening before bedtime. In the morning, they put on their beautiful shoes and went to work. I know how to shine shoes! MF: And they would inspect them? GT: They would inspect them. MF: Yes and make sure that they were all done. 11 GT: The class ahead of us (Junior) would see that we learned to shine shoes. MF: So some people have said that when you got to your nursing program that somebody would be assigned to be your big sister. GT: Yes. MF: Who did you have? GT: Geniel Jensen was my big sister. MF: I am trying to think what that lady’s name is and I can’t think what her name is. Grace Locke…Grace Willard. I think she was with her. She went to school with her. GT: The big sisters were really very helpful. Geniel was wonderful. If we had trouble with something, our big sister would sit down with us and explain things, sometimes actually teach us how to do a particular thing which we needed help with (one on one). MF: When you graduated did you stay at the Dee Hospital? GT: Yes. MF: What did you do after you graduated? GT: After graduation, I worked in the Operating Room as a scrub nurse. I worked with some of the finest surgeons in the area. I loved my work. I worked for a period of time exclusively with Dr. Dean Tanner. He sometimes used my ears, or chin, or nose as a model for the plastic reconstruction he was doing. I had the privilege of going with him, on occasion to the hospital at Kemmerer, Wyoming to be his scrub nurse. I don’t think many people know how great this man truly was. He had so much love for others. He treated patients regardless of their ability to 12 pay. His concern reached far beyond doctor-patient relationship. He just cared about them. One little boy who had been badly burned on his head and chest required extensive reconstruction surgery over a long period of time. Dr. Tanner bought him a wig so that he could look better. At the time it was Halloween and the little boy told him about looking forward to being in the spook alley at school so he could jump out and scare people. Dr. Tanner did not like that. He did many things to help that little boy have as normal a life as possible. MF: To have a bit of confidence. GT: I respect and admire him so much. MF: That is great. That is what our society needs. GT: He was not one to brag about himself. MF: After you were at the Dee for five years what did you? GT: We moved to California while my husband went to college. The Jr. Colleges in California were tuition free. His mother lived in Sacramento, so that is where we went. I worked at Mercy Hospital. I applied for a position in the Operating Room, but there wasn’t any so I accepted a position in the OB department. I worked in OB until we returned to Ogden. I loved working in OB so I applied for a position at St. Benedict’s Hospital in the OB department. MF: So did you like that? GT: Oh I loved it. It is a place of miracles—a wonderful place. MF: When did you retire from nursing? GT: After I had worked fifty years total—fifty years of being a nurse, and that means actively being a nurse—I retired. When I was 65 I stopped working full time and 13 went to part time. The nurses began working 12 hour shifts (36 hours) per week and I went back to full time. My children all wanted me to stay home. I loved the association with co-workers and the patients so I continued to work until I was 70, at which time I permanently retired. My children wanted to make sure I did not go back to work so they gave me a retirement party. MF: “Let’s make this final.” GT: Yes this is final now. MF: That is great. GT: I keep my “little Nurse” figurine where I can see her. I regret that I did not pass on my love of nursing to any of my grandchildren. I had two granddaughters who were quite interested. They completed a CAN program and then went to work in long-term care. They did not like it. Neither one pursued a nursing career after that. MF: I think it is a chosen profession. If you get in it and you love it you can do great things. GT: I think the girls should have started out in a nursing program and become a Registered Nurse. MF: And not do the specialties? GT: Having experienced all aspects of nursing, they could choose a specialty. MF: Because you learned everything. You had to do every single floor. Where now it is more specialized, don’t you think? 14 GT: When I was Coordinator of Nursing Education at the Chronic Disease Hospital in Roy, Utah, the nursing students at Weber came out for their long-term care experience. Do you remember the hospital? MF: I don’t. GT: It is now known as Heritage Park. It was the first and only Chronic Disease Hospital west of the Mississippi. It was built by Hill Burton funds (Federal). The funds were only for hospital construction and this new building was to replace the “Old Folks Home.” Because of its status as a hospital, it was required to have a pharmacy, x-ray, lab, and even a single surgical suite for minor surgeries (which we never used) just as any hospital would. MF: Oh good. GT: We received a lot of quad patients. They occupied one division. Another was for critically ill and comatose patients. Two divisions were for rehabilitation and two divisions were for geriatric care. We had an excellent physical therapy department. When the Hill Burton funds were retired, the County could no longer afford to run the hospital so they sold it to Beverly Enterprises. A lot of us had our positions abolished at that time. MF: Now Dora Peterson worked down there too. GT: Yes she did. MF: Do you know Dora? GT: I know Dora. MF: Yes we interviewed her too. 15 GT: She followed Grace Matsumura as the Director of Nursing. That was where I became immersed in long-term care. I completed my Administrator’s license while I was still working there. For about 3 years I was the Administrator of Aspen Care Center in Ogden. I had the opportunity to plan and develop the Alzheimer unit. That was an exciting time. I visited two institutions, one in Denver and one in Arizona, to see their pilot programs. It was a new concept that was just taking hold in other nursing homes. MF: You pretty much learned everything there was to know. GT: Ha! No not everything. MF: As far as everything you learned served you well throughout your life, don’t you think? GT: It really did. I was able to be a contributor in my neighborhood as well as at work and there are many things that you could do for people. I have always loved nursing. Nursing has been good to me. MF: That is good. GT: Nursing has always been good for me. I was always able to be employed in nursing. MF: That is what everybody said. You wouldn’t have a problem at all. GT: Not at all. When I went to California, I needed a California license to practice nursing. I sent my credentials to the State Board of California for reciprocity. I received my California License because the School of Nursing I had attended was well known for it’s excellence throughout the country. I was not required to 16 take any classes to qualify. I retained my California license for nearly 20 years, thinking we might someday go back and live there. MF: That is great. The Dee family has influenced Ogden. Their influence that they have, the hospital and Weber State, everything and their generous funds, they have been very generous. That is a good thing for people that have been beneficiaries of their generosity. We appreciate you letting us come visit with you. GT: I am glad you came. MF: We appreciate you sharing your memories with us. 17