Oral History Program Arlene Truszinski Clement Interviewed by Marci Farr 18 January 2011 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Arlene Truszinski Clement Interviewed by Marci Farr 18 January 2011 Copyright © 2011 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: Arlene Truszinski Clement, an oral history by Marci Farr, 18 January 2011, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Arlene Truszinski Clement, Sister Pachelli and other nursing students 1964 Arlene Truszinski Clement January 22, 2010 1 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Arlene Truszinski Clement, conducted by Marci Farr and Sarah Langsdon, on January 18, 2011. In this interview, Arlene discusses her recollections and experiences with the St. Benedict’s School of Nursing. Melissa Johnson was also present during the interview. MF: This is Marci Farr. We are interviewing Arlene Truszinski Clement at Mount Benedict Monastery in Ogden, Utah. It is January 18, 2011. She graduated from the St. Benedict's School of Nursing in 1965. We'll just have you start out by telling us a little bit about your family, where you grew up, your brothers, sisters, and where you went to school. AC: I was born in Melrose, Minnesota in 1940. It is central Minnesota, close to St. Cloud, a small farming community. Right after I was born my mother and dad moved to Elrosa, another farming area. We farmed all of our lives. I am the fourth oldest in a line of six. I went to school at Elrosa at the Parochial school. They started the Parochial school in 1946. That was a big thing in central Minnesota. Here come these nice, friendly nuns that are teaching. I still remember my second grade teachers were so kind. I went to the Parochial school through the eighth grade. There were ten in our class. After grade school, I went to Belgrade High School which is in the town next door. My aunt, Sister Hildeburg, would say, "Why don't you come to St. Ben's? It is like a prep school, come to St. Ben's." Mom and dad were fine with that. Sister Mary, my sister who is three years older than I am was already there. She was three years ahead of me so I was following in her footsteps. I went to St. Ben's sophomore, junior, and senior year in high 2 school. Then because I was there in high school I fell right into the group that was starting to become nuns. A lot of my friends were already in high school there were aspirants and then there were the Day hops, those were the people that lived in town. So I was an aspirant at St. Benedict's High School. After St. Benedict's High School I followed the group. I became a postulant that is the next step; you wore the black uniform with the white collar. After the postulancy you went right on to become a nun, a Sister of St. Benedict. That is when you wear the white veil and black habit as a novice, or the white veil. That is one year. During that year you study the rule of St. Benedict, the bible, and you learn to live the life of a nun which means getting up at certain hours and going with the community for prayer and work. The first year I was a junior—there were three years of being a junior. I went to St. Scholastica in the Duluth, Minnesota thinking it would be a four year nursing program. For some reason I wasn't really satisfied at Duluth. The reason that I wasn't was because I didn't do well in metaphysics. I said to my superior at St. Benedict's, "Couldn't I go into the three year program at St. Cloud School of Nursing." I checked there but they were all filled up. She said, "Arlene, do you want to go to Ogden, Utah." I said, "Well who is there?" She named Sister Mary Gerald, Sister Joel, the nuns that I knew a little bit already—I knew they were nurses and I knew them through Sister Mary, they were all her friends. I said, "Great." I came out here to Ogden. I came out the first time with Sister Jean Gibson's mom. Here were all these nuns that I sort of knew and they were glad to 3 have me. That is where I met Sister Mary Bernard Lieser. We were both in the same class. She was older than I was but just as happy as can be. We were kind of the same caliber; we came from the same area. She lives near Lake Henry and I Elrosa so we are all farming community and I knew her area. I knew her relatives. So I came out here and would be part of the three year program which really worked out good for me because now I have a couple of friends here in the hospital already and Mary Bernard. During the day we would go to school and in the evening have supper with the nuns, probably recreation with the nuns. Then to the study hall to study which was common. I had enough time, I had my room, I forget if I was with Mary Bernard or not in the school of nursing. I liked that program because it wasn't hard, it was ordinary. On the weekends—Sister Martina Schindler was in charge of central service, EEG, and emergency room. She would say, "Sister Pacelli, if you are not going any place you can come and help me do EEGs." So I would go and help do EEGs because I didn't know very much about EEGs. In central service it was just a matter of wrapping up catheter trays and treatment trays. That was fun. The people there were fun. Emergency room was really interesting. I still remember some of the paracentesis that we did when we put the tube in the abdomen and drain the fluid off of the abdomen. I remember thoracentesis, the ones that they put the tube in the pleural lining of the lungs. That was interesting. It was a little more scary. I did work in there so those are the things I remember, people coming in and accident patients. I would 4 hear the siren and we'd all say, "Go away, go away!" When they did come in we took care of them and the doctors were really good. Really, those three years at St. Benedict's from one rotation into the next—medical was fairly easy. Then on weekends I would work on the floors. They said, "You can work on second." So I would go work there. I really don't remember any problem with any patient. That is what I did on weekends. In the evenings we would go with the nuns either somewhere climbing the hills, was it Mt. Logan? It was one of the mountains and we'd slide down in the winter time. There was always something and always lots of good food around. In my rotations—another interesting thing was we went to Salt Lake City and did our psych training there. That was interesting. I don't remember a whole lot but I remember the shock treatments. Poor people... we just observed. We weren't really hands on with any of that. I remember our rotation to peds in Denver Children's Hospital. I liked that. I remember some of the nurses down there. We never continued communication with them. We would walk over to Children's in the morning and we'd sleep at St. Joseph's Hospital. Some days when we would walk home some people would say, "Aren't you scared to walk through this neighborhood?" We'd say, "Why?" It was because black people lived there. There were some but we never paid any attention to them we just kept walking along to St. Joseph's. I don't know if Mary Bernard was with me on that one but I remember a few of the girls. We just did our thing and we had little student supervision. I remember some of those little kids with diabetes. I 5 remember the little babies coming out of surgery, coming to our floor with tumors removed. I thought, man, these little babies are born with tumors. I remember one little baby especially had two tumors removed from the buttocks. I thought, “My goodness, here is this little child with this tumor and it is just a little, little baby.” That stuck with me, it was sad to see. Just talking to the parents and sympathizing with them was good. I liked Children’s Hospital too and everything went well. We went on a couple of trips. In Denver we would go up to Boulder, Colorado on weekends and visit a congregation of German nuns that came over from Germany. Sister Mary Bernard must have been with me because I would not have gone alone. I will never forget that they had a barn with cows. The barn was painted white inside and they had a holy water fountain as you came in the barn. I thought, “oh my gosh there are really holy cows in here.” They were a good group. I remember eating with them so that was another good experience. We went on a couple of trips around Boulder and there was another town right out of Denver where some school children were shot. I have forgotten the name right now. We did make a couple of trips on weekends. My remembrance from Children's Hospital was very nice, so much to learn. Then we came back here. We had Denver, Salt Lake City, and I think those were the only affiliates that we had. MF: You didn't go to Hastings at all? AC: No. 6 MF: You didn't go to Warm Springs, Montana? AC: No. I didn't go there. It must have been our group that didn't. MF: Probably, because I know they started changing that. AC: Anyhow, my group and class was really a nice class. As I see them now I don't remember anything really special about them but I remember Zufelt was always happy go lucky. Some of these in the earlier classes too. I remember really all of them. I think it was just one that I didn't really remember after all these years. I haven't looked in this book for years and years. Karen Sweeney, I remember her. Emily Richards, Judy Roe, Lillian Shaw, Diane Zufelt, and this is Anna. They were all good kids. We went through the three year program and everything went well. We had graduation and my parents came out for graduation. In a lifetime, for me, a lot has happened. After leaving here, as soon as I graduated, I took my state boards here in Salt Lake City, graduated, and was called back to St. Cloud right away because I was supposed to take over at this nursing home or help Sister Coramarie. We did that and that was fun because here you had all these old people that were kind of happy go lucky. Some of them had cancer but it was just a matter of meds and a matter of shots and getting their meds for them. We had a lot of good employees, young kids that were in high school. They were always around and they were always telling jokes and telling me what was going on. The pharmacist would come at night and deliver meds. He was a nice guy from downtown St. Cloud. I got to know him really well. We did crazy things like dance 7 up and down the halls. It was not unusual to put on some old time music or whatever, country music, and we would dance up and down the halls. The people liked that. They liked any kind of commotion. We would play cards, five hundred—not me so much but the administrator would come and play five hundred. She was a nun and she would always beat them. She is older but boy is she sharp. I was there for three years—that is where I met Mike, after his mom fell and broke her hip. I went over to the hospital to see her. I met him and in 1969 I went back to the hospital and from there I went to New Prague just for like six months. They always said, "Why don't you try to get away from this and see if it is really what you want to do." But I did, I went to New Prague, worked there at the Queen of Peace Hospital and that went fine. The nuns knew what I was about. I told them I was going to leave and go to Miller. I was at Miller Hospital, which is a big hospital right next to the capitol. I think it is connected with another hospital now. I was at Miller for about six months then I came back to St. Cloud, hooked up with St. Cloud hospital again, started working on extended care which is pretty much rehab—that was in 1971. We got married in '71—June 12 of '71 I was at the St. Cloud hospital full-time on extended care in '71 until '73 when Dr. Wittrock asked me to work for him in the clinic. He was a general practitioner and his brother-in-law was a surgeon right next door. I worked for him from '73 to '83 eight to five. The nice thing was now I am working eight to five instead of the relief shift or the night shift. I really didn't like the night shift too well because you 8 get kind of an upset stomach during the night. '73 to '83 with Wittrock and he was such a nice doctor, very kind. There I learned a lot. If you are in a clinic with one doctor he will allow you to do lots of things. You help with stitching people up, you help with diagnosing, when he is not there you figure out what it could be. We were really good friends. There was another nurse too, there were always two of us. That was until '83. In '83 Dr. Wittrock retired. I was going to go to the VA, they called me the day I started at St. Benedict's senior community and they have like two hundred and twenty people there in the nursing home. I came there as evening supervisor. That was good. I knew I had to take care of the building, plus the apartments, plus the intermediate. That went really well. I did that for quite a few years, starting in '83 till '93 or so. I forgot what year but I asked, "If there is a position as a staff nurse on third floor I will work on third floor," which ended up being the Alzheimer's unit. So you can do that. But the real reason is that I wanted to get away from doing staffing, calling people, which is good too but now I could go back to taking care of people passing meds and that kind of thing. I like to talk to the families. I really made a lot of friends on third floor at St. Benedict's center. I worked there until I was 65 and then I thought I would quit now and go on casual labor pool. Then I can draw social security. I knew Mike wasn't getting any younger so I could be at home for a little bit. Mike could get around good but he had trouble with his knees. I retired in 2006 and Mike died October 29, 2006. I was still on casual labor pool working just a couple of days a month, that is all 9 you had to work. I don't know—I think it was about 2008 when the new computer system came in, the epic system, I thought this is too risky to work just a few days a month and try to learn this new system. You would always have to ask, "How do you find this?" Now I think I am going to retire because by this time I was kind of alone because Mike was gone. I thought now I am just going to hang it up and do volunteer work. So then I started delivering meals on wheels, helping at the church in the morning, that is what really got me going after Mike died. You don't really want to get up in the morning, you would rather stay in bed. You don't really want to do anything but I thought I am going to get up and get to church and get to mass. Pretty soon it was, Arlene, would you help with this? Would you help with that? It was usually help with saying the rosary before mass if somebody can't do it, somebody can't distribute communion. Okay, I can do that. Then I met Ralph, whose wife died in 2007 on Easter Sunday from a brain tumor. I had never really known him from before. He took care of her until the end too at home. He said, "If you want me to come pick you up we could go some place to eat or dancing." That is how that happened. He would come out a couple of times. I knew him, but I didn't know his family too well. I knew he lived only ten miles from where I lived. We got married June 6 of 2010. That is my life story. It has really been nice. I could work full-time through all of my lifetime and even when we adopted Sandy. I don't know if I told you that three years into our marriage we adopted a seven year old. She lives in Knoxville, Tennessee and 10 has two grandchildren from that, from Sandy's marriage. With Ralph he has four daughters who are really nice. They say, "You are so much like my mom." MF: That is such a great thing. Was there any reason that you decided to become a nurse? Was there anything from your childhood that caused you to decide to become a nurse? AC: Sure. They ask you when you start out. Way in the beginning they ask, "What would you like to be? You have three choices. " I said, "I would like to be a teacher or a nurse or a missionary. "I was thinking, "What else is there?" But then I thought, it is not too difficult to be a nurse. You have to study. I knew Mary did. I knew lots of other girls that were nurses, not lots, but some. It wouldn't be too difficult to do, you just study, spend your time studying. It isn't easy. I always told the aids, "If you can, first get your education then get married." Once you are married, you really have to study a lot. Some of them dropped out. It is too hard. Yeah it is hard to do all that reading. MF: And take care of your family. AC: And take care of your family. But I became a nurse because I thought, "This is something I can do." Mary did it and she was well on her way already. She was at St. Scholastica's in the Luth and onto being an instructor at St. Cloud's. I thought, “I can do it too." MF: What do you remember most about the Sisters when you came here? Who were the ones that you remember that taught the classes? 11 AC: Probably the one that I remember the most is Sister Joel. She has left the community already. I remember all of them. Mary Gerald was really nice sister. Berno I knew from early on already. Sister Giovanni. Berno was the director and very friendly. Sister Nivelle was really good. Estelle was older but always had a good sense of humor—smart and liked lots of stuff. You could tell her anything and she could tell you what you should do or what you shouldn't do. Nivelle too. Giovanni always neat. I don't remember any of these ever having an unkind word with anybody. I guess I was always the smiley kind and get along with everybody. Josette, I don't remember too much about her but she was a good instructor too. I probably had her for anatomy. Rebecca, I always liked Rebecca. She was my pharmacology teacher and always smiling. She knew how to get the material across and we'd remember. Sister Mary Gerald, she had quite a sense of humor. She was a little more masculine and liked to do things. She was the one that would go sliding down the mountain. I remember her—in Logan canyon they had St. Ann's retreat. In the summertime we'd decorate that place. We had a Christmas in the middle of the summer. She was all for having a good party. Sister Joel in OB, she is very nice but very common. Her family comes from the Elrosa area too where I am from. A lot of these people you kind of knew their relatives already. MF: Yes she graduated in 1953 from St. Benedict's. AC: Josette? MF: Yes. 12 AC: Did Rebecca die already? MF: I think she has. AC: I think she probably did. Sometimes somebody dies and there are two things going on at the same time and I don't get to the funeral. But Rebecca was really a nice, nice person—always smiling. She always had a chuckle. I don't remember any specific stories about anybody. I remember Mrs. Etcheverry, she was really kind. She was smart. Mrs. Wheeler. This one I don't remember too much, Rosemary Sullivan, but I remember the name and her face now that I look at it. I think it was in nutrition that I got my only A. I liked anatomy, my favorite subject. Lena, everybody remembers Lena Borino. This one I don't remember too much but I remember Ellen Burk in the library. MF: Were you there when the shooting happened? AC: I know that there was a shooting and that was Sister Mary David’s department and it was in the library. Wasn't it medical records? MF: Yes it was outside on the lawn. AC: It was a girl from... MF: Cafarelli and... AC: It was a girl from Arizona. What is the cold place in Arizona? MF: Flagstaff. AC: Flagstaff. We were probably gone on affiliation because we heard about it and couldn't believe it. That was Sister Mary David I think it was. I remember the young girl being from Flagstaff but I don't even remember who she was. 13 MF: I think she was medical records. AC: Medical records, yes, you are right. I don't remember anything about it except that we heard about it. We were really surprised. MF: When we were downstairs we were looking at the pictures that they take in front of the second story window. They still have those downstairs. AC: Really? MF: Yes. We wanted, of course, that was a big thing from the class of '65. We don't want to put these pictures out but we found one of the two nuns conversing standing by the window. AC: I wonder who the nuns were that were there. MF: Cafarelli was the one that was shot. Diane Cafarelli. AC: She would almost have to be in this book, Cafarelli. We'll look it up after. Really I haven't seen any of these girls since I left here to tell the truth. All the names sound really familiar. MF: We talked to Gail Crisenhall. AC: Oh did you? MF: And we talked to Judy Binkley. She just lives—if you are going towards Weber State it is on Shadow Hills drive. It is just as you are on Harrison it is on the east side of the road. Judy just lives over here in some condos. AC: Did most of them continue nursing? MF: Yes they did. Full time nurses like you and Sister Bernard, just worked, worked, and worked. 14 AC: When I think back—I was telling Sister Mary I think I had two sick days in my years at St. Benedict's Center and I don't know if I had many sick days before that. Probably four days in all, can you imagine? MF: That is amazing. You didn't take time to be sick, you had to keep going. AC: See that is it. People sometimes say, "Arlene, you wouldn't have to come to work. "I would say, "I really feel pretty good. It is just that I can't talk very good." But I went because I just thought that I could make it. MF: It would be okay. What were some of your thoughts? MJ: You talked about going out into the mountains with the nuns. You just went hiking? AC: Yes. That was like Saturdays we would climb up part of the ways. I remember one time—who was it who slipped on a banana peel and broke her ankle? MF: Oh my goodness. AC: Yes one of the nuns slipped and fell down. I will never forget it. MF: Did you go up Waterfall Canyon? AC: It was right in back of the hospital. MF: That is crazy. AC: We would go on those little saucers and go sliding down the hill. Good thing we didn't run into something. MF: What do you think was your greatest challenge while you were in nurses training? 15 AC: The greatest challenge. The greatest challenge always for me was IVs, starting IVs. Especially when the folks would say, "Okay, I will give you one chance and if you don't get in..." It always worried me a little bit—blood draws weren't so bad because you could put the needle in. Sometimes, especially when you are alone and it is kind of dark in evening time and you have to get this IV in. The old folks don't really have really good veins. You hate to prick them. Starting IVs was probably my hardest challenge. In fact, one day I had called one of my friends and I said, "Phyllis can you come in? I have to start an IV. Would you come in and start the IV?" She was home in bed and it was like nine o'clock. She came in her street clothes and she was my opposite at St. Benedict's Center. She came in and started the IV. I was so thankful. We didn't have to do it very often but when you did have to do it—that was probably it! We didn't do it often enough we weren't really skilled to do it. You had to do it. You hook them up to the fluid—that was the hardest part. Shots are fine and even putting tubes down wasn't bad because you knew how to do that. Starting those darn IVs that hurt. MF: That was probably when they still had the needles. AC: I know they see the needles and their little veins just collapse. We had a rule that you can try three times and then that is it. I didn't want to try three times. If I couldn't get it in the first time I tried to call the doctor and say, "Do you really want to put this in or can we give her a shot of rocephin?" Sometimes the doctors would go along with things. I would always suggest. If somebody was developing a high fever and I figured they could probably get over it with IM shots\ 16 I would say, "Doctor do you think we could give them a shot of rocephin?" They would say, "Oh yes go ahead." MF: Good for you. AC: Yes I got along with the doctors pretty well. I would just say, "This is what I have. What should I do? This is what I would like to do. " MJ: Do you remember any of the doctors from St. Ben's? AC: Yes only as I look back here. I remember these guys being good guys. Doctor Eckburg was one, Norman Eckburg. The other ones that I remember was Doctor Lloyd Wesburg, he was good. I remember Doctor Scott. If you worked for somebody, especially as a nun, your job was to just get the instruments to them. When I worked in the emergency room with thoracentesis or paracentesis I was just so amazed at all this fluid would come out of a body cavity. The doctors were fine. MF: I am sure it changed every time you had your rotations. Which rotation did you enjoy the most at the hospital? AC: I suppose medical. Medical was probably my best. I understood it the best. I can go in there and figure it out and talk to them about it. Especially cancer patients, I remember one lady had run into a door and developed a huge sore under her breast. She didn't want to show it to me. I said, "Can I see that sore?" "No. " I finally got to see it and looked at this huge sore under the breast. When I told the nurses about it they said this is what she has. The doctor looked at it and sent her right off to a Minneapolis hospital. Some of those things made you feel really 17 sorry for people. There are a lot of situations like that where you really, really feel sorry for them. It could have been here when I was in the emergency room where the lady was out snowmobiling at night and ran into a barbed wire fence. They did find this part of the chin and I think we sewed it on right here. I don't know if it ever took her. MF: Emergency room would change every day. It wouldn't be the same thing. AC: You can expect anything, anything at all. I liked it but I wasn't familiar enough. I was a student so I would have to be running. MF: What do you remember most about graduation? AC: I really don't remember a whole lot about graduation to tell the truth. I am sure we were with all the class. There has been so much that went on since then. MF: It has been a few days, huh? AC: Yes, right. Everything that went on went on well. I don't remember any catastrophes ever. I remember my mother and dad coming out for graduation and my brother Earl. MF: That is okay. I am sure it was a great thing. AC: I have to thank God for my whole life because I have been healthy and usually wherever I go I just get along. You get started and do the work they tell you to do and try to do everything. Sometimes when you don't get it all done then I would stay over and do it. Some people would say, especially at St. Benedict's, "Arlene, are you almost finished." I would say, "You can go home and I will just finish up." Sometimes I would stay and finish up because I wanted to be sure my work was 18 done. Sometimes you would find stuff that wasn't done, especially when I was supervising. You have got to be sure everything is done and everything is right. I probably would run around a little more than I would have to but I wanted to double check on everything. That is kind of the way I am. MF: Did you have anything else you wanted to ask? MJ: I was just wondering, when you first came to Ogden what were your impressions of the city? AC: It was new. I remember coming out here. I don't know if it was the first time but I came out by train. I went to Chicago and from Chicago we came out here. I had a berth. I had never been in a train and sleeping in those narrow little beds. But coming through the mountains and hearing the train whistles and looking out to see the mountains—I thought, "Wow." I think the only trip I had ever taken was to Dakota. So this was my first trip out here. I thought it was really nice and very scenic. I liked it. I did get attached to Ogden. I would like to come back here because it is so nice. I came here and I am sure the nuns were at the train station to pick me up. I just fell in line. I never really found anything difficult in life. One thing I did find difficult in life was to correct people. I had found that difficult. I always knew when you correct people, you take them aside. You don't correct people in front of other folks. I have seen that a couple of times. It was not good. Don't tell them during work if you don't have to. After work they are a little more relaxed. I don't remember anything really big. MF: Well thanks for calling us and letting us visit with you.