Oral History Program Annette Dalpiaz Anderson Interviewed by Marci Farr 26 October 2010 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Annette Dalpiaz Anderson Interviewed by Marci Farr 26 October 2010 Copyright © 2010 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 St. Benedict’s School of Nursing was founded in 1947 by the Sisters of Mount Benedict. The school operated from April 1947 to 1968. Over the forty-one year period, the school had 605 students and 357 graduates. In 1966, the program became the basis for Weber State College’s Practical Nursing Program. This oral history project was created to capture the memories of the graduates and to add to the history of nursing education in Ogden. The interviews focus on their training, religion, and experiences working with doctors, nurses, nuns, and patients at St. Benedict’s Hospital. This project received funding from the Utah Humanities Council and the Utah Division of State History. ____________________________________ 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: Annette Dalpiaz Anderson, an oral history by Marci Farr, 26 October 2010, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Annette Dalpiaz Anderson Graduation Photo Class of 1958 Annette Dalpiaz Anderson October 26, 2010 1 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Annette Dalpiaz Anderson, conducted by Marci Farr and Sarah Langsdon, on October 26, 2010. In this interview, Annette discusses her recollections and experiences with the St. Benedict’s School of Nursing. MF: This is Marci Farr; we are interviewing Annette Anderson. She graduated from St. Benedict’s School of Nursing in 1958. It is October 26, 2010, and we are interviewing her at her home in Brigham City, Utah. Start out a little bit and tell us a little bit about where you grew up, about your family, and about where you went to school. AA: I grew up in Superior, Wyoming, a coal-mining town about twenty-five miles east of Rock Springs. I have a sister and a brother; I’m the oldest in the family. I attended high school and grade school in Superior. We had a real small school; only twenty-two people graduated in my class, so not really a big school, but it was fun. I decided to become a nurse when I was young. I can remember World War II – we used to have blackouts, and I can remember you would hear stories about army nurses. I don’t know if that’s what stuck with me, but I can remember always talking about being an army nurse. I never did.Then I think my mother wanted to become a nurse too, but she never went to school or never had the opportunity to go, I guess. I might have had a little bit of encouragement from her. MF: Okay, that’s great. How did you make it to St. Benedict’s? 2 AA: Well, I had a cousin that graduated from St. Benedict’s I think a couple years before I started there, before 1955. MF: Who was your cousin? AA: Francis Dalpiaz Bird is my cousin. MF: Oh, okay. AA: I can’t remember ever thinking about going to a college or a university as a nurse. I always thought the diploma type was the type to do. You know, I’m glad I did choose that, because we had a lot of experience, and I think when we finished school we were able to go out and take a job. I never had any trouble. MF: And your last year was total clinical work, where you guys were in charge – it was probably the most amazing training – you couldn’t get it anywhere else. AA: Right. I don’t know that the students now get as much clinical as we did at St. Benedict’s. MF: Right – because you can be smart and educated and trained in book-learning, but as far as the clinical aspect, there would be such a difference. AA: One thing – I think we got good experience at starting IVs. That was one of my favorite things. That was one of the best – I can remember working at different places, and people struggled to do that. But I was always pretty good at that, so I was proud of myself. MF: What were your first impressions when you did enter nurses’ training? AA: Well – I was homesick. I can remember my mother telling me every week, stay another week. She did that for three years. MF: Then finally, you can come home now. 3 AA: But my first impression? I just thought it was overwhelming, you know? By myself, having to learn all of that. I don’t really think that my high school prepared me. I mean, the classes that we had in high school – the only thing that I had in my high school was a chemistry class. We had a real good teacher, and I learned a lot there and it really helped me. We took science, biology and all of that stuff, but they never taught us anatomy and physiology, which I think would have really helped a lot. It would have been easier. MF: To have a little bit of background. AA: Yes. MF: Who was your roommate while you were in training? AA: Beverly Morrow. We went to high school together. MF: All three years you roomed with her? AA: Yes. She and I – we were friends in high school too. We got along. We didn’t have any fights or anything. We did okay in school. MF: Do you have any funny stories about her? Any interesting things that happened while you were in training? AA: Beverly and I used to laugh and have a good time, but we never did anything that was wrong. I do know that she and I one day turned in a paper for one of our classes with Sister Boniface; we had the same thing written. She got a better grade than I did. That’s a funny thing, I think. MF: Just to see if they’re paying attention. AA: That’s right. But it was fun. 4 MF: So what about the sisters? Tell us a little bit about your impressions of the sisters when you first got there, and through training. AA: Through training – I liked the sisters. I was always nervous about not doing the right thing. But I liked the sisters. The one that I liked that taught us was Sister Estelle, because she taught us anatomy and physiology and chemistry. I did okay in those classes. She gave us tests that you could study for and answer the questions. I liked the sisters. I thought they were all very smart, and nice. They did a good job in teaching us. MF: That’s true, it’s a great education. AA: I thought they did too. I was happy with it. SL: Do you remember anything about Sister Boniface, or Sister Berno? AA: Oh, yes, I remember Sister Boniface. I don’t think I could ever do anything right. She was just funny. I don’t know how to explain her, I guess. But she kept us on our toes – she made sure we did it her way. MF: She was the dietitian? AA: Yes. And Sister Berno – I remember she called me to her office one time and gave me a scholarship for seventy five dollars, and I was really happy for that. I’m glad she thought about me. It helped me very much. MF: So was that for all three years? AA: No, it was only one time. But you know, I don’t think tuition to go to school at St. Ben’s was anything like it is to go to school nowadays. I see my grandkids go and have to pay $2,000 to go a semester. I don’t think it even cost me $2,000 to go to school. 5 MF: That’s good, though. What a nice thing that she was – because I’ve heard that about her, that she was a very thoughtful lady, very kind. AA: She was. Is she still alive? MF: She’s still alive. Just turned 100 in April. AA: Holy Toledo – really? SL: She’s back in Minnesota, but yes, she turned one hundred. AA: Well, you know, I saw her at the last class reunion of all the classes that got together in Ogden, and she looked good. I thought she looked pretty good for – I think she was ninety then. A hundred! Wow. SL: She just turned one hundred, yes. Was Sister Mary Gerald there? AA: Oh, yes. Do you want to hear my little story about Sister Mary Gerald? MF: Yes, we do. AA: One day I was working on med/surg. She was supervisor there. It was on a Sunday morning, and I slept in and didn’t go to Mass, but I did go to work. Well, she made me go to church at St. Joseph’s. I had to call a taxicab, go to Mass, and I came back – well, that was probably about eleven o’clock, and I had five patients to take care of. I’ll never forget. But the help on med/surg, the other nurses’ aides and some nurses – they all helped me give the patients baths, and take care of them. But boy, I’ll tell you, I learned my lesson. Don’t ever miss Mass. I didn’t, either. MF: That’s awesome. What a great story. AA: I don’t know if they want to know that as history of St. Bens. 6 MF: Yes, we want to know those kinds of things. Did you ever have time that you spent with them that was not at the hospital, like in a social setting? Did they ever have any parties or anything like that? AA: You know, I had some pictures around here someplace, and I could not find them, but I can remember that a bunch of the girls in my class and some of the sisters – I think there was Sister Mary Margaret, and I can’t remember the other sisters – but we went on up in Ogden Canyon on a picnic. I remember the capping ceremonies, when we got capped, and the graduation ceremonies. SL: Did they have the spaghetti dinners? AA: I don’t remember that. I don’t remember the spaghetti dinners. SL: I think it was like a fundraiser to send a couple of the nurses to a national convention. AA: I don’t remember that. SL: I think it was Carol who told us that. AA: Was it Carol? Carol’s got a better memory than me. Maybe I was gone, too, on affiliation. Because you know, we went three months to Denver, and then three months to Hastings, so that’s six months where you’re gone, and they do different things. MF: That’s true. AA: So that’s maybe one of the reasons why, but I don’t remember the spaghetti thing. SL: Was Jeane Barker still there? 7 AA: Yes, she was our clinical instructor and she taught us how to do the bed baths and all those different procedures. MF: Nursing Arts? AA: Yes, Nursing Arts. She was a nice lady. Is she still alive? MF: She is. We interviewed her in September. AA: Oh, did you really? She was really a nice lady. There was another lady too. Echivari - and Uptigraff? I’ll never forget her. I gave her a bath too, while I was trying to do a procedure on a patient. Has anybody else mentioned her? MF: Was it Effie? AA: No, that’s Effie Echeverry. I think her last name was Uptigraff. she taught us our freshman year. We were taught how to do procedures and checked off in the hospital. I tried to sit and remember all the teachers I had when I was a freshman. Sister Rebecca for pharmacology. MF: That’s good. I don’t know that one; we’ll have to check that out. AA: I’m sure that is her name. MF: Who were some of the doctors? Do you remember some of them? AA: Oh, yes. You know, today I was thinking about some of those doctors, and about different things that we’d do. I can remember Dr. Howe. You used to hear his feet – clomp, clomp down the hallway. Let me tell you, I never saw so many students run. We’d go in the utility room. He was a good physician. He was never mean or anything to me – very professional. MF: So you had to work in surgery with them? Did you spend time in the OR? 8 AA: We worked three months in the OR. That was a good – I really feel like those three months were very valuable to me because I worked in the operating room here at the hospital. I mostly circulated and scrubbed if needed. The sterile technique was good to know. So that was good training. MF: Which rotation while you were at St. Benedict’s was your favorite? AA: I think my favorite was probably the OR and the surgical floor. I liked the surgical floor the best. MF: Why that over the other ones, do you think? AA: I think you could see the progress of the patients ever day on the surgical floor, how they would get better. You’d do all these things for them, and they would get better and better and better, and then go home. MF: So it was like a beginning and an end, instead of a circle? AA: Instead of a circle, yes; that’s a good way to put it. MF: Which was your least favorite, as far as the rotations at the hospital? AA: I didn’t like psychiatric. MF: You had your rotation in Hastings, right? Tell us about that. AA: Yes. Hastings, Nebraska. That wasn’t one of my favorites because I think it was kind of frightening for me to be around psych patients. MF: Because of not knowing how they might react? AA: One time I can remember we had the patients in a group and were taking them through a tunnell to another building. You would have to stand close to those patients because some of them could get violent or run away. I can remember in the tunnel, the lights went out. It was frightening wondering what those patients 9 were going to do, because some of them were in there for not good things. I got a little nervous but nothing bad happened. MF: A lot of people have said that’s not their favorite, but then some like it. AA: It’s a good thing that there are people that like psych, because you need them. MF: Absolutely, that’s true. AA: I think mental health is treated better now than what it used to be. MF: That’s true. It’s out in the open, and people can take care of it. AA: Yes. MF: What about Children’s? How was your experience at Children’s Hospital when you did that rotation? AA: The one thing I can remember about it was that I thought it was kind of depressing-all those sick little kids. There were quite a few patients with cystic fibrosis. Those kids were really sick. I don’t think there was much that they could do for those little kids. MF: They probably didn’t have the therapy, they didn’t have the medicines. AA: Now I see people with cystic fibrosis do fairly well. I don’t like to see little kids sick. I’d rather see them healthy. MF: Probably not a lot you can do, and that makes it really, really hard. Tell us about capping ceremony – what do you remember most, and where did it take place? AA: It took place in the parlor at the nurses’ dorm. I still have the candle, you know, the Florence Nightingale holder that we had the candle in. They lit the candle and we walked into the parlor. It really made you feel like you accomplished 10 something when you got the cap. You know what bothers me now, is the nurses don’t wear caps. MF: They don’t. AA: My sister was in the hospital in Denver the first of the year, in April. And up on the wall, it has a sign. RNs a certain color scrub. Dietary a certain color, CNAs a certain color, X-Ray a certain color. I thought, gollee, you’ve got to read the sign to see what is taking care of you. Things have changed. It’s not the same. Do they get a cap at Weber? MF: I don’t think they do. AA: They don’t any more. MF: That was really a big part of the Weber thing? SL: I think the very first few years it was. AA: They had a cap. SL: Now, I think probably in the seventies, eighties, it died out. MF: By the wayside. That’s too bad. AA: Well, you know, it’s the older people that say they wish that the nurses still wore the white uniforms, white socks, and the cap. That was, I thought, part of being a nurse too. It set you apart. MF: That’s how that goes, darn it. Tell us about graduation. AA: I remember going up to the altar and kissing the bishop’s ring and getting my diploma. What I remember about graduation is that I forgot my pin in my room, and I had to go all the way from St. Joseph’s Church back to St. Benedict’s to 11 find my pin. The funny thing about it is, I never drove very much in Ogden, and my parents were there; my dad let me take the car, and luckily I had a safe trip. MF: That was a great day, though, to celebrate? AA: It was very good. I’m glad that I did make it that far. MF: What was your greatest challenge while you were in training? AA: I can’t think of my greatest challenge in training. I think getting ready for state boards was a challenge. MF: I’m sure, because you had to make a certain level to be able to pass, right? AA: You know, that’s another thing about state boards. That was a two-day test, and now it’s only a few hours. MF: I think it’s on the computer, is that how it is now? SL: Yeah; I think you do it in one day. AA: Well, I have a grandson-in-law that did it, and he said they cut him off at 75% SL: Once you get 75% you didn’t need to answer any more questions? AA: Well, if you got them all right, I guess. I don’t know how it works, but the state boards were terribly hard for me. MF: That would be a challenge. AA: That was a challenge to me. MF: Did you stay at St. Benedict’s after? What did you do in your career? AA: I stayed at St. Benedict’s – we graduated in 1958 and I stayed there and worked on third surgical floor. I worked until I got married in June of 1959, and then my husband got drafted and I went to California with him. He got transferred to Kansas - Fort Riley, Kansas – and I applied for a job down there, but it was hard 12 to get a job because he wasn’t permanently stationed there, so we’d be moving someplace else in the summer. They weren’t too anxious to hire me. He got out of the army in September of ’61, and I worked here at the Cooley Hospital here in Brigham City a couple of nights a week. In 1976 they built the new hospital in Brigham City. I worked down there on medical/surgical floor. In 1977 I got in a car accident, and had a head injury. I really didn’t want to go back to work, but my husband encouraged me to go back, and so did the director of nurses down there. At the Brigham City Hospital I did a little bit of infection control, and then in late 1977 I went to work in the operating room. I worked there until I retired in 2000. I really liked the operating room. I never liked to be on call, but that went with the job. You know, there were a lot of good things that you could do for people; that made you feel good. MF: Absolutely. That’s what it’s all about. AA: I’m not sorry I did that. I often thought about going to a bigger hospital, but you know, I’ve had children here at the house, and I wanted to be close by if they needed me. MF: Absolutely. But with your training, I’m sure you’d be able to go anywhere and be able to get a job. You had thorough training. AA: I think so. I think that it was good training, and I am not sorry I did it. I’d do it again. I have a granddaughter that wanted to go into nursing, and she decided to get married instead, but she has a husband that is a nurse. I have another grandson who is thinking about nursing. 13 MF: That’s good, keep the legacy going. AA: I do hope that they want to be in the medical profession. SL: I was just wondering if you had any patients when you were on the floor that you remember, or an experience while you were in training that sort of stands out in your mind. AA: You know, I can remember one person, but I can’t remember his name, and I guess that doesn’t make any difference, but I took care of him when he had some kind of gastric surgery at St. Benedict’s. He was from Brigham City. I can remember when I was working at one of the hospitals, and he came there as a patient and he said, “I can remember you.” He could remember me from St. Benedict’s. So I thought that was interesting. I know that there was one other man that had a farm out in Corinne where my husband worked as a teenager. He was at St. Benedict’s one time too, and of course I didn’t know Ted at the time anyway, but after I moved to Brigham City I ran into him and he remembered me also. So that’s a couple of things. MF: That’s good. Thanks for letting us come visit with you. We appreciate you letting us come.