March 1976 Page 3 Comment Retirement Is Only A Change In Assignment Mrs. Ruth Swenson, chairman of the WSC retired department of nursing, did not know as she sat among the group of nurses at the University of Utah where she was earning her master’s degree in 1953, that the speakers message would change the course of her life. The speaker, Dr. Mildred Montag, was addressing the group on a “new concept in nursing.’”’ Columbia University was sponsoring research into the feasibility of public and private campuses training nurses. Eight schools were selected for this pilot program and Weber State College was one of them. Mrs. Swenson was called to start the pilot program on the Weber State College campus. President Henry Aldous Dixon and Mr. Kenneth Knapp, administrator of the Thomas D. Dee Memorial hospital, approved of the new plan. ‘Looking back now,”’ said Mrs. Swenson, ‘“‘I don’t know how we ever did it. The program was innovative and entirely without precedent.”’ The results are a nursing program that now graduates approximately 170 nurses a year and the pilot program that started with eight schools has now evolved into 600 degree-granting colleges and universities throughout the country. Se, The traditional training of nurses had been by hospitals where the girls “lived in’ for three years. The training was expensive, much of this cost was assumed by patients, and took the nursing students entirely away from the college campus. They were granted diplomas. In the new program students registered as all other college students. The only difference was they majored in nursing instead of another field. They were regular college students participating in activities. “The problem in the beginning was selling the program,”’ said Mrs. Swenson, ‘‘a few doctors were so much against the new program that I ducked into a closet in the hospital to avoid confronting one of them again,” she recalled with a smile. “The most difficult task was finding a well-prepared faculty,”’ Mrs. Swenson said, ‘‘things have changed now but in 1953 they were very hard to find.” **There was a closeness in those first classes. We had so much fun. We had review sessions at my house and made fudge,’’ said Mrs. Swenson, ‘‘several physicians came by to help the students and ended up playing the piano and Singing. In fact, when I felt tension building up I planned a party.’ “Emerti faculty talents should be used,’”’ says Mrs. retired chairman of the WSC department of nursing. hbuptie? at “et, “ | e RED cal a eee : soe eee it “Young graduates of the program had to prove the value of this new method of nurses training,’ she said. ‘‘They also had a broad educational background.”’ After five years the study was written up and the research and pilot project had proved to be very successful.”’ During those five years Mrs. Swenson and the faculty were taken to Columbia University each summer for a week with their expenses paid, to learn more about the project. Visitors from Columbia also came to the campus. Each of the eight colleges developed their own programs. Many of the first students went on to get master’s degrees. Five are now teaching in the nursing program on campus. “Because we were a research program in the beginning we are well-known across the nation,’’ said Mrs. Swenson. ‘‘Dummy Train to Hot Springs’’ Charles A. Groberg (continued from page 2) rotunda as part of tennial celebration. Institute of Fine also. be one of public showings. the BicenThe Utah Arts will the first Each painting and its story is appearing in the Ogden Standard Examiner. The donor will also display the collection before presenting it to the college. “It’s been a fun project,’ said Mr. Critchlow, ‘“‘many of the artists have said it is the most exciting work they have done. I believe this is just the beginning and could go on indefinately.’’ The nursing program now offers one-year training and two-year associate degrees. The four year baccalaureate degree is offered by the U of U with the course work offered at Weber State. Mrs. Swenson was chairman of the Council of Associate Degree Nursing Programs of the National League for Nursing from ’67 to 69. Leola Davidson, presently chairman of the department of Ruth Swenson, Nursing, is on the executive committee. “JT am very impressed with what Leola is doing. Each person seems to bring to a position a personality to meet the needs.’’ From ’69 until her retirement in ’73, Mrs. Swenson was in charge of the baccalaureate nursing _ program. Retirement is only a change of assignments for Mrs. Swenson. She is still very active as a volunteer in the nursing department. She is presently compiling a history of the program and doing a follow-up study of graduates and a statistical study. She is a member of the National League for Nursing accrediting team and recently visited New Mexico and Alabama. She is also president of the WSC Emerti Faculty and feels the great talent of that group should be used. ‘For a complete change I’m a volunteer at the Lewis Elementary School library every Tuesday morning,’’ said Mrs. Swenson, “I enjoy the contact with small children.”’ The “support and encouragement’’ of her husband, Reed, makes her continued contributions possible. She is the mother of three children and has 10 grandchildren. Her vitality sparkling from an interested face, Mrs. Swenson concluded, ‘‘I wouldn’t have missed this experience for the world.”’