Oral History Program Maureen Baker Gallegos Interviewed by Marci Farr 12 August 2010 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Maureen Baker Gallegos Interviewed by Marci Farr 12 August 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: Maureen Baker Gallegos, an oral history by Marci Farr, 12 August 2010, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Maureen Baker Gallegos Graduation Photo Class of 1964 Maureen Baker Gallegos August 12, 2010 1 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Maureen Baker Gallegos, conducted by Marci Farr and Sarah Langsdon, on August 12, 2010. In this interview, Maureen discusses her recollections and experiences with the St. Benedict’s School of Nursing. MF: This is Marci Farr, and I am interviewing Maureen Baker Gallegos. She graduated from the St. Benedict’s School of Nursing in 1964. Tell me a little bit about your early life, where you grew up. MG: I grew up in Salt Lake; we called it the Avenues. I was the oldest of ten kids, and we lived in a three-bedroom house, and it was crowded. There were ten kids in thirteen years, so I was always like the second mother. I think that’s where I got my nurturing, nursing interest. My mom had been a nurse prior to getting married, and my grandmother had been a nurse, even though I hadn’t really known her. But I think that just carried through in our family. MF: So where did she – did she go to Holy Cross? MG: No, she went to Syracuse University in New York. MF: Oh, how exciting! MG: Yeah. And that’s where my dad went to school. He had a business degree, and she had a nursing degree, and then she went on to get a school nurse certification. But once she started having kids, she never worked. So she ended up taking a refresher course when the youngest was about five or six, at Holy Cross. It was hard for her. After being out of nursing, things changed so much every few years, and she really struggled, and I had to admire her. Then she 2 worked probably ten years at Holy Cross, and then she eventually worked at St. Benedict’s. MF: Oh, good! That’s exciting. MG: Yeah, as a volunteer – she and my dad were volunteers. MF: That’s a great thing. Is that why you decided to go to St. Benedict’s? MG: No – we lived in Salt Lake, and I lived really close to Holy Cross, like a block and a half away. I thought, that’s too close to home, and I needed some space. And there really wasn’t room in the house. MF: That’s true. MG: I just thought it would be better, and when that was suggested to me, I took it and ran with it. MF: That’s a good thing. MG: Yeah, it turned out to be really good – eventually I became friends with my counterparts who went to Holy Cross the same years that I did. You know, you end up working with them, and you tend to know mutual people. So it’s interesting. MF: So were there any assessments that you had to do before you entered training? How did that work? MG: You know, I even found my school application. MF: Oh, really? MG: And my interview with Sister Berno before I ever went. MF: How exciting. 3 MG: When I applied to St. Benedict’s, I apparently had to write a letter, and here’s my application for admission, and this was in May of ’61, so this is the year I graduated from high school. It’s interesting the questions that they asked you then. MF: It’s got your family listed. MG: It has all my family, and what my parents did for a living, and it had people that I had used as references. There’s my high school picture. Then I had to write a letter of why I wanted to be a nurse. It’s interesting to read it now. Then, this is a copy of the interview that – oh, Sister Josette. I was thinking it was Sister Berno that interviewed me. But anyway, this is dated May 20th. So then they accepted me eleven days later. It cost five dollars to apply. MF: For your admission fee. MG: Yes. MF: That’s exciting. MG: It talked about my reaction – I was plain-looking, pleasant, and neat. I could express myself clearly, and that I lived only three blocks from Holy Cross and that I needed financial assistance. I talked to my sister about that yesterday, and I assume that St. Benedict’s helped me with the application. I think the only money that my parents or myself contributed was the initial registration fee, because the Bamberger Foundation at that time provided full scholarships to everybody. They always stressed – you always needed to let them know how you were doing every year and how much you appreciated the money. Otherwise, I couldn’t have gone. 4 MF: We’ve had a couple of Dee Graduates - I think they’re the last, the ’54 and ‘55 girls, were the ones that got the Bamberger Scholarships. So I think it must have started in the fifties and carried on, but yes, a lot of people. MG: They must have provided education for nurses, because I dont think my high school counselors would have suggested it, but I think the school arranged it. The money went directly to them, it didn’t come to me. MF: I think so. That was so exciting, because look how great that was for you to be able to take advantage of. MG: Oh, yes, because my family had no money. I mean, we grew up and we didn’t know we were poor. We were poor in material things, but we had a great life. We just never knew what we missed out on until we were adults and had our own families and tried to see, how my parents ever made it. MF: Did you take any classes in high school that helped you along the way? MG: I took some science classes, and I did a lot of childcare, and I seemed to have a nurturing tendency – in fact, a couple of physicians that my mom knew had me come help take care of sick people when I was in high school. MF: Oh, wow. That’s great training. MG: It just seemed like a natural fit for me. MF: That’s great. What were your first impressions when you first entered nurse’s training? MG: I thought it felt like an extended family, and it was really fun, and it was so spacious. The dorm rooms tiny, but the whole facility and the campus was really big, and everybody made you feel comfortable. Very welcoming. 5 MF: And you had a roommate? MG: I did. It was someone I had gone to high school with. I don’t know if they set it up, or if we arranged it ourselves, but Nancy Hart and I had gone to high school together. MF: Where did you go to high school? MG: Judge Memorial in Salt Lake. MF: Did you spend all three years with her? MG: I think so. Yes, and we did do the same rotations. When you were freshmen, you lived on the second floor of the dorm, and there were two in a room. And I don’t know when – I think as juniors, maybe that’s when a lot of the rotations were. They had this system where you rotated going to different places. As we got time to do rotations, they changed some of the facilities. We no longer needed to spend time at the TB Sanitarium in Ogden, because TB was being eradicated, and they didn’t see the need for students to spend time there. And Hastings, Nebraska was the place where students ahead of me had gone for their psych experience, but - I don’t know why the contract was changed – but anyway, we went to Warm Springs, Montana. For pediatrics we went to Denver, and I think you mostly did that the end of your junior year, part of your senior year. Then if you were seniors, you had a lot more responsibilities in the hospital, and you moved down to the first floor of the dormitory, and you had a whole room to yourself, instead of sharing. That was to be desired. MF: I was going to say, was that a wonderful experience? 6 MG: I remember in the dorms there was one phone at the end of the hall, and whoever had a room down at that end had to answer it all the time. If she didn’t want to answer it, somebody else would, if you were expecting a call. Way before cell phones. MF: Did you have a house mother that took care of you? MG: Lena Burrino was there, and she was the house mother. She was so sweet. She’s apparently still alive – she lives in Diamondville, Wyoming. MF: Really? MG: One of the students that was ahead of me sees her every once in a while. I think she’s in a care facility, and she seemed older at the time when we were in school, so she must be in her late ‘80s or ‘90s now. But she was just so sweet, and she’d listen to you, and she’d cover for you, and never squealed on you, when you said anything. MF: That’s awesome. MG: I don’t know if she lived there – I can’t remember. MF: If she had her own room? MG: She may have. I know there were a couple of nurses that worked in the hospital, that possibly rented rooms down on the main floor. Hattie – I want to say Hattie Hitori, an operating room nurse who was single was one, and then I think there were a couple others – Sally Weyer was an OB nurse - and it seemed like they lived in one of the wings down on the end, and it was just their house. MF: How were the sisters as far as strictness, as far as the rules? 7 MG: They really had some rules. We bent them, but - they were just really firm, but they were so soft on the inside. They were so generous with their spirit and counseling – they just made sure you knew what you were doing, and kind of kept you on the straight and narrow. I think they knew some of the shenanigans that went on. I was looking at some things last night - we had a couple formal teas, and I think that must have been so stiff in those days. Now, life’s so much more informal, but dorm life was wonderful. We had a really good time. MF: Did you get together to study for exams? MG: Yes. You did with your roommate, and then I think most of the classrooms were in the basement of the. I think we all took the same classes on the same thing. When it was time for your rotation away – I think there were probably like twenty-four in our class, so eight at a time were at a different place. So eight would be in Denver, and then eight in Montana, and then eight still at St. Benedict’s. MF: Did you have a probationary period at first? MG: We did, and I think we started with a lot more students than ended up. I was looking at some pictures, and I remember – I’m not sure when those students dropped out, but they did. I think we probably started with like thirty-six, maybe, and we ended up with like twenty. I can’t remember how many we had graduate. Fifteen? Do you know? MF: I know it’s in the blue book, but I can’t remember. What were some of the courses you took? You didn’t have any at Weber, right? You were strictly at the hospital? 8 MG: At the hospital. Then it started to be that you had to have certified teachers teaching certain subjects, they didn’t have the resources that they had previously used to teach some classes. One of them was psychology, and we had a professor from Weber State come over. He just didn’t fit the mold of all the other instructors. He wanted us to all sit in the same seats, and he didn’t know our names, and he asked someone to take a picture. I think that’s how he graded us. I don’t remember having a good experience with him. I found the book, and he was Dr. Stratford, and that’s what we remember, him trying to teach us, but it wasn’t something that we thought was practical for nursing. It just didn’t apply to what we were doing. MF: Wouldn’t use it. MG: You’d probably use it, but not in what we were currently doing. So we found it really difficult. I think he probably read from the book, and it wasn’t as interactive as all of our other classes. MF: True, because they were very hands-on. MG: Yes, they were very hands-on. MF: Tell me about some of your classmates who were in your class. You had Nancy, who was your roommate. MG: She met someone when we were in Montana, in the spring of our senior year, and she ended up marrying him. They’re still married, and still live in the same place in Montana. MF: Oh, wow. That is crazy. 9 MG: Yes. That was interesting. I’ve seen her a few times - she’s been an EMT, and done community nursing things. MF: Oh, good. MG: Someone else in my class I’ve kind of kept contact with is Joyce White; she lives in Caldwell, Idaho. I think she recently retired. I see Diane Powell – Diane Green. She was from Pocatello, or Blackfoot. She lives in Tucson, and she’s been retired many years. When we have traveled that way, we’ve gotten together. It seems like every once in a while when they have reunions – I’d go, but the people in Ogden saw each other all the time, and they all kept track, and it felt like I wasn’t still part of that same family group. So it was nice to see them, but you know, our commonality had kind of changed. They went to school and they graduated, and as soon as they graduated, they started working. They didn’t branch out anyplace. You know, which is okay, but I just hadn’t kept track of them. MF: Yeah. It is kind of hard, when you get a family and everything else. It’s crazy. What were some of the rules that you had to follow? Did you have curfew? MG: We did have curfew, and I’m trying to think – it must have been ten o’clock, and I know we’d barrel down the canyon trying to get there on time. I think it was probably eight o’clock Sunday night if we’d gone home for the weekend. I don’t think I went home very often, because of transportation. There was no way to get to Salt Lake. But if we had friends that lived in Ogden, we’d go stay at their houses with their families for the weekend. That was fun. 10 MF: Well, that’s good. What did you do if you had a night off, what was something you would do? MG: We ended up going to the old hermitage drinking beer. And I don’t think that’s still there, is it? MF: I don’t think so. MG: We used to do a lot of hikes in the back; Waterfall Canyon. I think there was a park area. I know there weren’t any homes or anything behind the campus, so that was always fun. We used to walk down the hill, because none of us had a car. I don’t think the people that lived in Ogden even had a car. And so we’d walk down to Harrison Boulevard, and there were a lot of restaurants or – I don’t know what kind of stores were down there. MF: Little convenient stores? MG: Yes, places to go. MF: Confectionaries and things like that. MG: Yes. There was an ice cream place, and if we had enough money we’d end up going down there. It was just a nice walk down the hill. MF: You were on 30th and Polk? MG: Polk, yes. It was at the top of the hill. MF: That’s good. You couldn’t get married, right? You weren’t allowed? MG: You weren’t allowed to be married, but there were students toward the end that did get married. I think they convinced them that some of the seniors were allowed to get married. MF: So they could get married their senior year? 11 MG: I think they still had to live in the dorms, though. But I know one of the girls in my class, her senior year, she ended up getting married, and I think her husband was in the military, because we used to date guys from Hillfield. I think he was being transferred someplace, and I think she said, “I’m done with school, I’m going.” And she dropped out at the end. You know, or they found out and wouldn’t allow her to take her finals. But I was looking through the books, and it looks like two years later she came back and finished. MF: Oh good. MG: And I used to think, that’s so sad that she wasn’t allowed to finish with the group. But I think our senior year some of the students were married. And I guess they just decided that they needed us, and they were being a little tough with the rules. MF: Yes. Because you had six months left. MG: Yes, right. And I guess they just thought it would interfere with the schooling and the routine – you know, it was just kind of regimented. Which classes you were in, you were assigned to work, and there was no getting out of anything. You just were expected to be there. There was no way you’d call in sick or not show up. You wouldn’t even think of it. MF: You’d have to be on death’s door. MG: I think if you were sick you’d still go. You just had that sense of obligation, that you were needed, and you’d do that. MF: When you were first assigned to the floor after your probationary period, what were some things that you started out – what did they start having you do? 12 MG: Passing patients’ food trays, and giving bed baths, and helping ambulate people. Minimal things like that. It probably took a year until we were passing out meds. I know that was a big deal, setting up the medication trays. I think they did team nursing, so there’d be an RN over a group of students who would be responsible for them. I think we worked seven in the morning until eleven, then from eleven to twelve we had time for lunch. One o’clock classes started, one to four. Then we went back to work from four until seven at night, a lot of times. And in those days, before people had surgery, they came in the night before, and really it was a convenience thing. They just admitted them, did their vital signs, had anesthesia check them. Once in a while you’d give an enema. But there wasn’t a whole lot of preparation to do. The surgeons would come check them. That’s a lot of what we did. We would have to sit there waiting for people to come from home, and sometimes we would have a list of the surgeries, and if we were waiting for six people, we just had to wait until they all came in, then hustle and get everything done. It was probably minimal what we were doing, not advanced histories and physicals like we do now. MF: Did the sisters require you to attend Mass on Sunday? How did that work? Was it just if you could go? MG: It was never an issue. I don’t think they had anything that was mandatory. I was Catholic, and a lot of the students weren’t, but it was never an issue. MF: It wasn’t required. 13 MG: We knew when the nuns were going – we had it timed to the minute when they went in the morning, so if we had snuck out and stayed out overnight. They would walk from the dormitory building over to the hospital where the chapel was, so that was our time to sneak back in. MF: To get back in. MG: Yeah, we were bad. MF: So if the door got locked, you didn’t get in. MG: Well, so that nobody could see us. We knew we had that few minutes' transit time. You know, you try to get away with a little bit of freedom. MF: Absolutely. MG: But once you were in school, you stuck with it. I think Monday through Friday we pretty much stayed with it. MF: But then the weekends you’re like “Yes!” MG: Thursday nights we used to go bowling up at – is it Rainbow? MF: Rainbow Gardens? MG: Rainbow Gardens. It was nursing instructors and students, and the instructors must have come and picked us up, because none of us had cars, and we’d go up there. It was really fun. You know, it was away from the clinical setting, and it was just a social thing to do. MF: That would be nice to just – kind of recharge your batteries. MG: It was all the freshmen, juniors, and seniors. It wasn’t just freshmen. So you got to know the other students. 14 MF: Oh, that’s good. That would be fun. I know they took out the pool – was the swimming pool still there when you guys were there, or was it just a bowling alley at Rainbow Gardens? MG: Boy, I don’t know. I don’t think it was there. We used to like to go hiking around behind the school, and that was always fun. Then there was one place – the interns lived over on the south side of the building, in some small homes. We would babysit for them sometimes, and that was something to do in the evenings. But they had a little fenced area, and we used to go out there to sunbathe, because it was fenced. It was probably ten by ten ground space. MF: Did you get paid at all while you were in training? MG: If you worked as a student nurse employed by the hospital, you did. I think the first summer – I think I went home after that first year, I’m not sure what I did. I may have stayed and worked as a nurses’ aide. On second thought, classes were year round. MF: But you would get paid for that. MG: Right. Not much – and you would just do minimal things. You would be under the hospital license, not the school. It probably wasn’t as clarified clearly then as it is now, with regulations, but you were allowed to do things. Between my junior and senior year, I did stay and work, and I remember doing that. Then once in a while, I think they’d have you do private duty when someone was really bad, sit with someone, and they’d pay you for that. MF: So would they still have those people come – and use the private rooms in the hospital, where you would take care of them? 15 MG: Right. In those days, they didn’t have agencies, and they didn’t have intensive care, so when people were very critical, you would end up just sitting in the room. And I’m not sure much what we did, but I can remember doing that. MF: That is good to know. MG: Yes, so we did make a little money. But I had no source of income when I went to school. I know my mom would send me a check every once in a while, and it would be for five dollars, and I would think, boy, I’m in hog heaven. I’m going to splurge. But the other thing they allowed you to do, was when you needed a cash advance, you just went to the hospital cashier, and you’d sign a little script, and they’d give you like twenty dollars or whatever you needed. Then they just kept a running tally, and at the end, you had to pay that back at graduation time or they held your diploma. I don’t remember how much I owed – but I got in a habit of doing that whenever I needed money, because you know, there were just things you needed to do. And then after graduation, I had to repay that debt, so I ended up just staying working, and they took so much out of my check. It took me a year to pay it off. I don’t think they ever formally said, you don’t get your diploma until this is paid – I don’t remember negotiating any contracts or anything – they just trusted you, in those days. It was very informal. MF: That’s good. When you had your capping ceremony, where did that take place? MG: Probably in the lobby of the dormitory. It was kind of a formal dining room, where it took place. There was a real sense of reverence around it, that it was really special. It took place probably six months into training, so that was when a number of people had been weeded out. 16 MF: So as far as your performance, and your grades, right, in classes and stuff? MG: Right. So if you made it to capping, you were probably going to be okay and make it through school. I think a lot of people who had left find out it really wasn’t what they had thought it was, or they just couldn’t cut the mustard. I don’t remember people being agonized about leaving, they just thought it was a good thing. Kind of a mutual agreement; they decided to leave. MF: Once you got past the year mark, what were some things you started to do with more responsibility? Were you a charge nurse at all on the floors? MG: We probably were towards the end of our second year; the seniors were working nights. They were the charge nurses at night. So they would get off at seven in the morning, grab breakfast, and then they’d have to go to classes. I don’t think I had to do that as a senior. I think then they had more RNs, and didn’t have the students. But I can remember hearing, I don’t know how you can work all night and then have to go to class. MF: That would be so hard. MG: Yeah, it would be so hard. But I think, instead of the four-hour blocks that they had us work, we probably worked a full day, and maybe only had classes three days a week and worked two. A lot of times we were supervised by the instructors that were teaching the classes, so there was a good follow-through, they would walk around and make sure you understood what you were doing, and made you feel comfortable asking questions. MF: That’s good. So you weren’t nervous, you’d be okay. 17 MG: I’m sure we were, but they made you feel comfortable and made sure you were doing a good job. MF: And when you were with them so much, that probably made a difference. MG: You felt real comfortable with them. And then you did a few things socially with them, and so it was a really good relationship. MF: That’s good. That’s how it should be. So who were a few of your patients? Do you remember that you had any that were there long-term or that you got to know well? MG: On the third floor we had a young little boy that was from Huntsville. He may have been seven. His name was Hyslop. He had some burns, but the burns weren’t new when I remember taking care of him, but he had long-standing burn treatments, and required a lot of care. He was pretty ill. That was in the days when there were no burn units or ICU. You wouldn’t have many patients, because you’d have to gown and glove to take care of them, and so he took a lot of care. There was an elderly lady who had cancer, and she came in time after time after time, and then she finally died in the hospital. In those days, you would come to the hospital to die. MF: That’s true. MG: That was pretty sad, and I wonder how much support we ever gave them. I mean, we gave them what we thought we could, but nowadays it is just so much better. 18 MF: It’s true, it’s just totally different. Are there any traditions you remember at the hospital? MG: We used to have spaghetti dinners, or do things the students would put on to raise money for the student nurses’ association - there were national conventions, and I think we did send students to that. It was just a way for hospital employees and physicians and their families to come be part, and it was just like a family gathering. I don’t know how good the food was, but everybody used to come and just socialize. Whenever we went to the cafeteria to eat, we had to be in full uniform. MF: Really? They wouldn’t let you be in your street clothes? MG: If you wanted breakfast, you had to get your uniform on. MF: That is interesting. MG: I think we didn’t think anything of it then, but now it’d be tough. It’d be tough to have to live in a dorm situation. MF: Exactly. That would be very hard. What do you think was your greatest challenge while you were in nurses’ training? MG: I think trying to succeed and make sure I did well. I struggled with a few classes, but you know, I just appreciated the instructors so much. I think they all took you under their wing. I thought, I’m the only one, but I think they did it to everybody, because I think we all had a good self-confidence, and we have all done well clinically and professionally. And Sister Berno was just wonderful. She was in charge like the first and second year. MF: So was she Director of Nursing? 19 MG: Yes, she was; at the school, not part of the hospital administration. MF: Okay. MG: The senior year, she was replaced, and Sister Cassin had come. She came when I was away on affiliation, so she didn’t know me personally, and she sent me a letter saying that I needed to improve my grades or I would have to repeat some classes. Sister Berno sent a follow-up letter that she knew I was trying my hardest, and continue, and that I had their support. Sister Berno was so wonderful. When I got the Bamberger money, every year it’d just go to the school or however often they paid, and one time the check came to the school, and she personally took the check and said, I think you need this money more than we do right now. And she sent me the check, and I was in Montana my senior year between January and March, and I don’t know what the check amount was, but I mean, I just thought that was so wonderful of her. She said, “You can repay the bill at the end, and don’t worry about it.” I think she knew my family situation, and I just had no income. She didn’t have to do that, and she wasn’t in charge then, but she took it upon herself. MF: How nice. I think that’s probably what made you such great nurses, was you had that camaraderie with the sisters, and that they were able to teach you as far as how to take care of a person, but also to remember they are a person and their personal needs. To remember the service that you’re giving to these people. MG: And I think they appreciated us, because we really did tend to staff the hospital. In those days, you know, the staffing issues were different. So it wasn’t like we were being taken care of. We were given the chance to learn with hands-on, and 20 not only learn, but understand what we’re doing, and ask questions, and you know, make sure we’re doing things right. MF: It probably was nice that you had the hands-on, because as far as mentally thinking about it or reading about it, then to actually practice when you were done I’ll bet made such a difference. MG: It did. MF: Where was your graduation held at? MG: St. Joseph’s church, in Ogden. And I have a picture of me. I think it was in a newspaper. MF: Oh, what a great picture! Okay, so ’64 is when you graduated. What a great picture. MG: It is. It was really a solemn ceremony, and we all had to wear the same exact uniform. I can remember having to buy that uniform and the shoes and everything else, and that was a big output at the end of school, you know, before you had actually started working. MF: So did you have cape? MG: We did, but I don’t know when we wore them. Because we didn’t wear them when we graduated, because we graduated in June, and the capes were wool. But I still have mine, and it’s heavy and beautiful, and my kids have worn it for Halloween costumes – Dracula. My son got this gray makeup all over it. But – we must have worn them back and forth between the buildings. There was a tunnel between the dormitory and the hospital, so we never did have to go outside. I 21 think it was just something that you bought – every nurse has a cape. It was just a tradition. MF: Part of that tradition. That is good. So what – did you stay at St. Benedict’s after graduation? What did you do? MG: I stayed at St. Benedict’s after, to pay off my tuition bill, and I don’t remember applying for a job. I think that those of us that stayed were put where they thought we’d fit. My earliest job was in the psych unit. I don’t think that that was my strong point, but I went there, and I enjoyed it, it was good. It was more of a sociable work setting. There were a lot of other alumni that were working there, and we had an open unit, so with patients, we would do social activities with them out in the community. It was kind of fun. They did some shock therapy, which – I remember people coming down from Idaho for. MF: Were they still doing insulin at that time? MG: Yes. They were doing insulin and group therapy and shock therapy. When we did shock therapy, we had to go in early in the morning, probably at six. We had to have anesthesia to put them to sleep, and they had to do it before they started their day at seven, wherever they were going. It was Dr. Shyrack, the anesthesiologist. I think he was who used to come. Then Dr. Iverson was the psychiatrist. MF: The techniques now compared to then - it’s just totally… MG: It’s totally different. And the thought process behind what’s better for treatment. We used a lot of liquid medication – I remember giving lots of Thorazine. I had just finished – my last rotation between January and March of my senior year 22 was psych, and then we graduated three months later. But my psych experience wasn’t a good one – I didn’t think it was a good strong clinical rotation. I sprained my ankle badly like the second weekend there, and I was out of commission for like three weeks, and it was in Montana, where it was thirty below, and the wind was fifty miles an hour. It reminds you a lot of the terrible images you had of psych hospitals in those days. The state hospital had a lot of confined infants who were severely handicapped, just long wards of them, and they had some criminal units there, but I think it was the clinical instructor situation that wasn’t so good. It was just a different situation. MF: That would be so hard. After you got back, what did you do? MG: I worked psych until I paid off my tuition, and then one of the other employees in the psych unit said, “I’m going to New York, why don’t you come?” And I said, “Hmmm. That sounds good.” So we left in October of ’65. We went, and applied at the VA hospital to work psych, and when we got there, we were made charge nurses on a medical unit. We just went, duh, we don’t know anything. It wasn’t a good work experience. The hospital was just massive, and we were just these shy little things from Utah, and just got thrown into it. There were like ward after ward of all these veterans. The veterans used to take care of each other, and we’d pretty much just pass out medications. So our whole goal once we got there and saw the work situation was to find a new job. So we would don regular clothes and go sit in hospitals, or walk around, and see what was available. We got wonderful jobs at Roosevelt Hospital, over on the East Side, and we worked psych there, and it was very permissive psych. A very good learning 23 experience. I ended up working nights, and we had twelve patients, and they could do anything they wanted. They could have any drugs they wanted. It was real passive. They were wealthy, there were some well-known people. There were three units in the hospital, and they were all psych. So we worked nights; lived in hospital housing, and it was kind of a family-style psych unit, so the patients and the staff ate together, so we always had food. We would pack a lunch when we left work, and never had to buy food. We had free health care, free medicine, and had tons of money. It was wonderful. It was a great experience. MF: Oh, I bet. MG: I lived there for two years, and then my husband-to-be came and got me and brought me back to Ogden. When I left Ogden, we were dating, and I thought, if I stick around, I’m going to end up getting married, and I need to see the world. So I went to New York, and he went to Vietnam. Which wasn’t as good. Anyway, when he got wounded and got out, he came and picked me up, and then I came home and lived with my parents so I could “save money” – didn’t work. I worked at the University of Utah for three months, and then we got married in December. The first semester, he went to Weber State College. He found out he could get out of the service early if he went to college, and someone in the library helped him fill out the forms. So instead of getting out in like November, he got out like the first of September, so he could start school on the GI Bill at Weber. MF: Wow, that’s exciting. 24 MG: He just thought, anything to do to get out of the service. And little did he know that he’d keep going to school. The GI Bill then was really good. MF: That is awesome. So what did he end up doing? MG: He ended up going to law school here in Salt Lake. MF: Oh, good for him. MG: He was one of the first minority attorneys in the state. The first fifty minority people they kind of honor as being innovative and pioneers. MF: How wonderful. MG: It was good for him. He came from a family of fourteen, he was number four. MF: Really. MG: We thought we were poor – he was even poorer. They were migrant farmers, so college was a great opportunity for him. He did work at the hospital a little, and that’s how I got to know him. He was one of the orderlies on the third floor, and he had gone to St. Joseph’s high school, which was kind of a feeder employer thing. They would help out St. Joseph’s students, and the nuns would see if they could get kids jobs. MF: Good for him, that’s great. When did you retire? MG: I retired in ’03, and then I retired in again in ’08. In ’03, my first grandchild was born with really bad congenital problems. He was born in May, and then I knew my daughter was going to be off for four months on maternity leave, and then I originally was going to take care of him one day a week. But I thought, there’s no way he can go to daycare. And my husband had had a liver transplant three years before, and he had a lot of complications. And I just thought, you know 25 what, I’m done. I had a great job, and I said, I’m leaving. They tried to work with me to get me to stay, but they knew I was gone. So I retired and I took care of my grandson a couple days a week, and then my husband started getting a little better. He had a lot of post-op complication. And so I took care of my grandson a couple days a week, and then I’d fill in at the hospital. I just stayed on PRN, and when it was convenient for me I’d work. Then they transitioned to the new hospital, to Intermountain Medical Center, and I’d been a manager, so I helped with the transition before I retired, but then in ’08 I said, I think it’s enough. And I was surprised how good my retirement was. You know, you don’t know financially how you are going to be, but we’d saved pretty well. I’d taken advantage of the 401(k), and stayed with the same employer for thirty-five years, so my pension was pretty good, then social security. I found that I really didn’t need the money, and I also found that I was giving so much of it back to the government. I said, I’m going to do something else. Then you had to keep up all your skills. I’d go in and fill in for meetings, work four hours, and I just said you know – I really missed the camaraderie of Cottonwood, where I’d worked. It reminded me a lot of St. Benedict’s. It was close-knit – we knew everybody in the hospital, and it was just a good feeling. Then you went to Intermountain Medical Center, and it’s this massive male clinic of the west, and the relationships kind of got diluted. You couldn’t keep track of anyone any more. But I still see people once in a while. It was a good experience. Nursing’s been great. It’s been so flexible. When my husband was in school, I would adjust my shifts or my schedules to whatever his quarterly work 26 was, and then he would watch the kids, because it was cheaper to do that. Then, when he was still in law school, and I was working, and I said, “I’m going to take the summer off. I’ll come back in September.” And they said, okay. I mean, that would never happen now. Never in a million years. But I think that I’d been there a few years, and they knew I was a responsible employee. Then when my kids were little, I did the same thing. My son was in private school, and I was driving him, so I said, “I’ll come back to work, but he’s in school from nine to twelve, so when I drop him off I’ll come over, and then I need to leave at quarter to twelve.” They said, “We’ve never done this.” And I said, “Well, let’s try it. This is what I’ll do.” And I gave them a proposal, and told them the kind of skills I could do and how I could help, and they said, “Well, we’ll try it.” And it worked. Then when he went to the afternoon kindergarten, I switched my stuff. So it worked out. You know, half-day kindergarten is a waste. MF: It’s the worst thing in the world. MG: So it worked out good. MF: Well, that’s perfect. Nursing – how do you think it’s changed over the years? MG: The technology and the information, patient involvement, infection control and the miracle drugs we have now. I mean, the things we can do. All the disciplines are involved. When I was a student, we used to lug this giant tank of oxygen to give the respiratory treatments. Now, respiratory therapy is a huge, huge skill and career option for people in healthcare. Physical therapy – Augie Weakman was a physical therapist at St. Benedict’s, and I don’t remember how much help he had, but in order to get people up to get them walking, that was really different. That 27 was what we did. We didn’t wait for a physical therapist to do range of motion, and exercise people. MF: So you pretty much took care of everything. MG: We did. Right. Now, you really can’t take adequate care of patients without all those. You all have to work together, all those ancillary departments. It really is a team effort. I don’t remember social workers at St. Benedict’s – we took care of the social needs of families. Some of the nuns probably did some spiritual counseling along the way, but now, you know, it’s just an integral part of healthcare. MF: It is, it really is. Well, we appreciate you letting us come visit with you. It’s been great. MG: It’s been interesting. It’s been a good career. I love it, and now I’m a volunteer. MF: Oh good, so are you at Alta? MG: No, I volunteer at Maliheh Free Clinic – we provide free healthcare and medicines that’s donated, to people who fall between the cracks. They don’t qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. MF: So they don’t have any insurance? MG: They don’t have any insurance. MF: Oh, what a great thing. MG: It is a great thing. You just make a difference, and you care about people. MF: And see, that’s probably the whole thing. When you’re a nurse, you’re helping someone. It does make a difference, absolutely. 28 MG: And you do think you make a difference. It’s all donated, and we don’t have any government contracts, so we don’t have to document or be responsible to any agency. MF: Just taking care of people’s needs. MG: We just take care of them. We don’t write everything down, and they leave happy, and feel that somebody cares and there’s a chance of hope. MF: That’s what it’s all about. MG: There’s a lot of volunteers. There’s a couple paid positions; in society nowadays, there’s just this gap in those that have and those that don’t. MF: What a great thing. Well, good – thank you. MG: I appreciate it. It’s an interesting project.