Oral History Program Judith Roe Binkley Interviewed by Marci Farr 20 August 2010 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Judith Roe Binkley Interviewed by Marci Farr 20 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: Judith Roe Binkley, an oral history by Marci Farr, 20 August 2010, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Judith Roe Binkley Capping Ceremony 1964 Judith Roe Binkley August 20, 2010 1 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Judith Roe Binkley, conducted by Marci Farr and Sarah Langsdon, on August 20, 2010. In this interview, Judith discusses her recollections and experiences with the St. Benedict’s School of Nursing. MF: This is Marci Farr. We are interviewing Judy Roe Scroggins Binkley at her home in Ogden, Utah. It is August 20, 2010. She graduated from St. Benedict’s School of Nursing in 1965. Tell us a little bit about your early life, your family, where you grew up and went to school. JB: I grew up in Ogden. I went to Ogden City schools. We moved to Roy when I was in fifth grade and lived there until I went into nursing school. I graduated from Weber High and went directly into St. Benedict’s School of Nursing. MF: Why did you decide to become a nurse? Was there any particular reason? JB: Yes. My dad told me, he said, “Now Judy, if you’d become a nurse like your cousin Barbara, I’ll buy you any kind of sewing machine you want.” I thought, “I could do that.” So I did. MF: When you were in school did you take any classes that kind of prepared you? JB: I did. I took the chemistry classes and I took physics classes. All the science classes that I needed, math classes that I thought I would need, which later proved unnecessary. MF: Oh really? 2 JB: Oh yes. I didn’t use geometry in nursing school, no. I didn’t use algebra in nursing school. MF: But of course they say you’ll need it. JB: Yeah you’ll need it. I am still waiting. MF: Was this your first time away from home when you entered nurse’s training? JB: Yes it was. MF: How was that when you walked in? JB: Well it was a little intimidating because at that time we lived in the dorm and the Sisters lived in the dorm with us. You couldn’t move home. You had to live in the dorm. We had a lot of gals from out of state, from way down south like Price and all around the neighboring states, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, and California. We just all kind of hovered together like lost little souls in the dorm. MF: So were you able to go home though? Could you go home on the weekends? JB: I could go home on the weekends, yes. But at that time I didn’t have a driver’s license, there was no need for me to drive so I never got a driver’s license. Later on, the only reason I got a driver’s license was so I could get into the bars. There was no need to drive because there was always somebody with a car. MF: Who was your housemother at that time? JB: We really didn’t have a housemother per say because, like I said, the nuns lived in the dorm with us. The dormitory was two floors, we had classrooms and a chemistry lab that was in the basement. Then we would go through the tunnel over to the hospital to work. The director at the time was Sister Berno, Sister Mary Berno—lovely lady, sweet lady. There was a lady that kind of—I guess she 3 could be called the housemother, her name was Lena, an older lady, never married. She lived in the dorm with us—had her own little room. We would share rooms with another girl. Gail Taylor was my roommate. We were roommates for the first year. She was very smart so she would study a little bit and then put her jazz on and go to sleep. I would be up till all hours of the night studying. I had no study habits at all in high school. I had to knuckle down and really study. It was an eye opening experience. It was a challenge. MF: What was your room like? JB: It was a small room. It had two single beds. As you walked into the room on either side was a small closet for each of us. Down the hall was a community bathroom with shower, tub, and sinks. We had laundry facilities downstairs in the basement. We had one desk. Sometimes you were lucky to get two to study. It was very plain, very simple, nothing fancy. At the end of the hall was a rec room with lounge chairs, couches, TV, small kitchen. MF: How were the Sisters when you first were there? Were they strict? JB: They were strict. They let you know what they expected of you and everybody complied. There was no monkey business. If you didn’t meet the standards or whatever they wanted, you were gone. MF: Tell us about your probationary period. You had a period of six months that you were on probation? JB: I thought it was three months. It was probably three because we would go in for our interviews with Sister Berno. She would never tell you, “Okay you flunked out, pack your bag and go home.” She would approach it with, “Maybe you 4 would be better suited to do this.” She was very kind. I was just dreading it. I thought, “Oh I’m going to be ‘better suited’ for something else.” To be a car hop or something. I went in for my interview and she told me, she said, “Miss Roe,” she said, “You are really struggling. I think you need to be on probation.” I said, “What?” She said, “Yes, you need to be on probation.” “Oh okay.” She said, “We’ll let you know when your grades improve and we feel you are off probation.” I was probably in the middle of my junior year when I found out I’d been off probation for a long time. They were afraid to tell me because I’d get too excited and not study anymore. So they just let me think I was on probation for like two years. MF: That is a good story. What were some of the courses that you had to take while you were in training? Did you have any affiliations with Weber at this time? JB: No we were all ourselves. We did, however, go to Denver Children’s Hospital for a pediatric rotation which was three months. They would go to state mental hospitals, one was Warm Springs Montana and the other was—I can’t remember the other one. My class, by the time we got around to our psych rotation, we affiliated with University of Utah. They sent instructors for our psych. Then we would work down in our psychiatric department in the hospital. We took microbiology classes, anatomy, physiology, nursing arts, history of nursing, sociology classes, psych classes, nutrition classes, everything very related to nursing. There was no generals. It was all specific for nursing. MF: Tell us about some of your classmates. You mentioned Gail was your roommate. 5 JB: Gail was my roommate. My very best friend ended up being a gal named Rae Ann Cook who was from Idaho. Her roommate was Kathy Motichka, who has since passed away from colon cancer from Agent Orange due to being in Vietnam. So that stinks. She was from Glenwood Springs, Colorado. My other very good friend was Diane Zufelt from California. There were probably, when we started about thirty in our class. I think we graduated like fourteen. MF: Wow so a big drop. JB: Huge drop. MF: Due to the fact of not working out? JB: I think academically not making it. They prodded me along bless their little hearts so I paid them back by working full-time forty years for them. I got the most out of my education. MF: You weren’t able to be married at that time? JB: No, you could not be married. If you were married you were asked to leave. Later, I think my junior year there was a lady that was secretly married. MF: Really? JB: Yes. I think they later found out and just—because shortly after that they said you could be married but you had to stay in the dorm most of the time. They made it a little more difficult for the married students. MF: What were some of the rules that you had to follow while you were in nurse’s training? JB: We had curfews. We had to sign in and sign out. After ten o’clock at night all the doors were locked, even to the hospital. You would have to go in through the 6 front door, check in with the telephone operator at the front desk, sign in and then go down the elevator to the basement of the hospital and go through the tunnel to the dorm. That is the only door that was unlocked. SL: So there was no sneaking in and out? JB: Sure there was you silly girl. We snuck in and out through the purchasing department down in the tunnel in the basement. We patronized the Hermitage up in the canyon and Chris’s. That was famous for St. Benedict’s nursing students. They had a reputation I think. MF: So what were some fun stuff you would do if you had a night off? JB: Nothing. MF: Study. JB: We would just study. After the first year they told local students if you wanted to you could live at home. I told my folks, “No, I have to stay at the dorm,” because I have to be able to go to the library and study. The library was open all the time. Besides that, I liked the dorm life. I liked my friends and stuff. But a lot of times, on weekends when nobody worked, several girls would come home with me—or Gail, at Gail’s house. We would go out and have fun and be back to the dorm by Sunday night to start all over again. MF: Let the fun begin! What were some of your assigned duties? When you first got on the floor what were some of your first assigned duties that you had? JB: We had to follow—we had instructors on the floors. Rosemary Sullivan was one of them. Janice Hassell was also an instructor in the classroom. They would come and check on you and they would assign you patients. We were there 7 probably three months and we were on the floors working with patients. It was fast. We would work in the morning. Then at lunch time we would go to lunch and then we would go to class all afternoon. It was a very full day. MF: So what you were learning in the classroom you practiced out on the floor. JB: Pretty much, yes. Nursing art class was probably the most important one. That is where we learned to make beds and we practiced starting IV’s on each other and putting down nasal gastric tubes down each other. MF: Oh that was probably fun. JB: Yes it was. Especially if you get somebody you don’t like. “Here, let me do you.” SL: What do you remember about your instructors? JB: They were all really classy ladies, very professional, very knowledgeable, they were admired by all of us. SL: And you had some doctors teach? JB: Very few. Some doctors would come in for a lecture. Doctor Swindler, I remember, one time came in—a very stern man—and I thought, “Man, I hope I don’t ever run into him.” Well I certainly did down the road. He scared the socks off of all of us. That was the goal—that was his goal and he did it well. SL: Did the Sisters teach? JB: The Sisters did teach our classes. Sister Noel taught us anatomy and physiology. Sister Estelle taught us microbiology. We had Sister Boniface that taught us nutrition. But they were mixed—civilian instructors with Sister instructors. MF: Was Helen Farr there at that time? 8 JB: No she was after. She was affiliated with Weber College. MF: In the morning did you had chapel? JB: If you were Catholic you were expected to go to chapel. You were also expected to take religious classes as well. That was the free hour for those of us that weren’t Catholic. I wasn’t Catholic then at the time. So that was my free hour. I would usually go to sleep. MF: That would be everybody’s choice. SL: So not being Catholic, why St. Benedict’s? JB: Because my dad told me if I would go there I would get a sewing machine. I didn’t want to go to a college. All my friends in high school—that was the big thing. In fact, I was going to go to Utah State with my good friend from high school. She was a smart, smart girl. Her major was going to be math. But they didn’t have a nursing program. I don’t think Weber State had a nursing program at that time—I am not really sure. SL: Yes they did. JB: If they did it was maybe only the two year. MF: It was the two year program. JB: I thought, “No.” My folks couldn’t afford to send me to a University. I thought, “This is where I am going to go.” I didn’t work for any of my education, my folks did. Maybe that is another reason that I worked forty years—to pay back. SL: Do you remember the cost? JB: I don’t. The first year we were there—our meals were included in the cost of tuition and fees, board and room. Then after the first year they decided we were 9 eating too much and so we had to pay for our own food. After that, I would work extra on the floors in the hospital. I would work as a nurse’s aid but I would get paid as a student nurse. Sweet—the best of two worlds. I could wear my student uniform so I didn’t have to buy uniforms. Everybody wore uniforms. You didn’t wear scrubs. You wore white nylons with seams, white shoes and caps. You dressed formally for work. MF: What did they say yesterday—that you had to be dressed even to go eat. JB: Yes. On weekends, being a student, if you were living at the dorm you could go over in your “civies” but if you got off the floor and you wanted to eat you stayed in your uniform, went over and ate, then went back over to the dorm and changed your clothes. MF: Had to keep the professional persona. JB: Yes. MF: So tell us about your capping ceremony? Where did that take place? JB: I can’t really remember where it took place. It was quite an achievement. We all had capes, the traditional nurses cape and carried candles. It was very dramatic. I have got several pictures of it somewhere in this mess. It was quite the deal. We all went to bed with our caps on that night—our nursing caps and PJ’s. We were so proud. MF: So how long were you assigned to the different floors? Once you got past your probationary period? JB: We would do different rotations. We would do our OB rotation which included out on the floor post partum and in the nursery and in the delivery room. We were 10 there probably for three months on that rotation. You do a month every section. You were probably the same amount of time on the medical floor and the surgical floor, you did your orthopedic rotation, every once in awhile we’d get to go down to the emergency room. We did a rotation in the operating room. Like I said, we left and went out of state to Colorado for our pediatric affiliation—that was three months and met girls from all over the nation, there. They all congregated at Taman Hall for Children’s Hospital. MF: Was that at the end of your senior year? JB: My pediatric rotation was near the end of my junior year, into the spring and summer quarter. MF: Which floor was your favorite, which rotation did you like best? JB: I liked the operating room and that is where I ended up doing most of my career. MF: Do you remember any traditions at St. Benedict’s? Were there any that you can recall? JB: Well when you first got there you were on probation for your first three months. You were called “probee” and you had an upper-classman that was your guardian or heckler or whatever you want to call her. They did a little initiation on you. On the whole we pretty well stuck together. We were plucked from here and here and here, thrown in the soup pot and we just had to sit. We kind of gelled together. Everybody made good friends. A lot of us kept in contact for a few years and then as time went on you just kind of lose that. MF: You had to rely on each other though for those three years. 11 JB: We did. When I graduated from school, myself and three of my classmates got an apartment in Ogden. We shared an apartment for about a year and of course everybody got married and I didn’t get married so I had to move back home. Oh I hated that—didn’t like that. MF: When you were in nurse’s training what was your greatest challenge that you faced? JB: Just trying to absorb it all. I didn’t have good study habits in high school because high school wasn’t that hard. I just kind of skipped along, kind of blew it off. I really had to get down and just mind my business and do it. MF: Where was graduation held? JB: We graduated at St. Joseph’s church. MF: Tell us a little bit about that. JB: It was quite a fancy procession. Like I said, there weren’t very many of us there but it was very grand. We all got a bouquet of roses. MF: Your family was invited. JB: Oh yes, family and friends. MF: Did you stay at St. Benedict’s Hospital after you graduated? JB: I did. I stayed there for a long time, probably ten years. I started out in the operating room and then my friend and I went to Primary Children’s Hospital and work in their operating room. She decided she didn’t want to move to Salt Lake. By then, I had already told my supervisor in the OR I was leaving, she had replaced me. I trained my replacement. So then I didn’t quit and I went out on the floor and worked as a float out on the floor. I enjoyed that because I got to 12 work days and I didn’t have to work weekends. I would report every morning and they would tell me where to go and I would go. It was kind of nice because the floor was so strapped for help and they were so full of patients they were pretty glad to see you walk off the elevator and say, “Hi, you’ve got me today.” MF: I am sure your training was beneficial. JB: Yes because I had worked on all the floors. I was very comfortable at St. Benedict’s. Like I said, I worked there for ten years. After I had been in the float pool for awhile I went down to the emergency room and was the head nurse in the emergency room for about five years. My night nurse was married to a physician from Hill Field. He was getting out of the service and was going to open his practice in Ogden. I was complaining one day about how I just got tired of having to fill in shifts and stuff. By then I was married and I had a little girl. I had always worked full-time ever since I graduated. I told my husband, I said, “I like to work. Don’t tell me I should stay home. I like to work and if you can’t go along with this—you are going to have to learn how to do dishes and learn how to cook and take care of kids and stuff because I am not going to stay home and do this. I am going to go to work because I like to work.” My night nurse came to me one day and said, “My husband’s office nurse is leaving. Would you be interested in that position?” I thought, “Well, I don’t know.” So he came to talk to me and I thought, “Well, I am going to do it.” I talked to my husband and he said, “Whatever you want to do.” So I left, worked for him for about thirteen years. Then I thought, “No, I need to go back to the hospital.” So then I go back to the hospital and got a job in the operating room and worked there for another ten 13 years. It seemed I worked ten years just enough to accumulate three weeks vacation, then I move on somewhere else. MF: When did you retire? JB: I retired after I had worked for a period of time after going back to St. Benedict’s, then went to Davis Surgical Center. There was an outpatient facility they were opening and it was new and a new concept of doing a lot of outpatient procedures. I thought that would be kind of fun. That is where I went. I worked eight years and then retired four years ago from there. MF: How do you think nursing has changed over the years? JB: Not enough bedside care. Just my experience having surgery Monday—my best nurse was my night nurse. She came in, checked on me frequently, kept me loaded on pain pills and checked my IV antibiotics. As far as daytime goes, there is no patient contact with nurses. A little bit with CNA’s. My husband, Mr. Scroggins, he passed away in ’08. I was in the hospital a lot with him. I did his care. The CNA didn’t do his care, the nurse didn’t do his care, they weren’t in the room. I did his care. They are just not as hands on as they used to be. They don’t get up and walk with you. They say physical therapy is supposed to walk you. MF: Have you stayed in contact with any of your classmates from the year you graduated? JB: I have seen Gail Taylor off and on but I haven’t seen her for a long time. I used to keep in contact with some of them. We had yearly reunions down at the hotels at the banquet rooms, various classes. That was kind of fun because I knew 14 many upper classman. My good friend now, JoAnn Linford, I see her all the time. She is like three classes ahead of me. My own classmates I don’t really see a lot of because I think they are pretty scattered. I think probably myself and Gail and are the only ones of our class that are here. MF: In Utah. JB: Yes. MF: Well we appreciate you letting us visit with you. JB: It has been fun.