Lorena A. Ryan-HinesStudent Essay

Looking Backwards, Moving Forward

Lorena Ryan-Hines, a student in a nursing program, wrote this essay after interviewing an experienced professional in her field.

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Someone once said, “You cannot truly know where you are going unless you know where you have come from.” I don’t think I understood this statement until I got the opportunity to sit down with Joan Gilmore, assistant director of nursing at Smithville Health Care Center. With the blur of everyday activities going on during the change of third shift to first shift at the nursing home, I had never recognized what value Joan could bring to the younger nurses. Once we started to talk, I began to realize that, although I am a nurse, I don’t know much about how nursing has evolved over the years. During our conversation, I discovered how much history, wisdom, and advice Joan has to share.

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Joan tries to stay as active as she can working on the floor so she does not use an office. We decided just to sit down in one of the multi-purpose conference rooms. Joan looks very good for a woman of her age. In fact, no one would ever suspect by looking at her that she is a young sixty-four years old. She is approximately 5'2" tall and dressed in white scrub pants with a flowered scrub top. Although her hair is dyed, the color is a nice natural tone for her. She is not flashy or outspoken, but she knows what she is doing. However, if she has a question, she does not have a problem asking someone else.

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When we first sat down, we started talking about how she grew up. She was the third child of seven children. Her father worked in a factory and also farmed over one hundred acres. Her mom stayed home to take care of the children. As I watched her talk about her upbringing, a glaze seemed to roll across her face. I could see a slight twinkle in her eyes. She almost appeared to be back in that time and space of childhood. She went on to explain to me that she decided to go to nursing school because it was one of the few jobs, forty-five years ago, that could be productive for a woman.

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She decided to enter the three-year program at St. Elizabeth Hospital’s School for Nursing in Dayton, Ohio. Students were not allowed to be married and had to live in the nursing school’s brick dormitory. Whenever they were in class and on the floors of the hospital, they were required to wear their uniforms, light blue dresses with white pin stripes. The student nursing cap, the “dignity cap” as Joan called it, was all white. When students graduated, they earned their black stripe which distinguished them as registered nurses. Joan said that she did not think we should continue to wear the all-white uniforms or nursing caps. However, she conveyed a sense of sadness when she said, “I think we have gone too far to the left these days because everyone dresses and looks the same. I think as a nurse you have worked hard and earned the right to stand out somehow.”

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I asked Joan about the pros and cons of being a registered nurse and whether she ever regretted her decision. Her philosophy is that being a nurse is a calling. Although nursing pay is generally considered a decent living wage, sometimes dealing with management, long hours, and the grief of tough cases is hard. Through experience and commitment, a nurse learns to take each day as it comes and grow with it. Even though life-and-death situations can be very stressful and the fast-paced nursing world can be draining, nurses can never forget that patients are people. For Joan, when patients are demanding and short fused, they are not really angry at the nurses but at the situation they are in. She believes that a nurse is always able to help her patients in some way, be it physical or emotional.

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The advice Joan gave me about becoming a new registered nurse may be some of the best advice of my life. Each registered nurse specialty has its demands. She recommended working for a while in a medical surgery area. This area is a great place to gain knowledge and experience about multiple acute illnesses and disease processes. From there, nurses can move forward and find the specialty areas that best suit them. This fit is important because nurses need to be knowledgeable and confident, leaders who are not afraid to ask questions when they do not know the answers. To gain the respect of others, nurses also must be willing to help and to let others help them because no one can be a nurse all alone. Joan recommended being courteous, saying “please” and “thank you” when asking someone to do something as well as encouraging others with different talents. Lastly, she urged me always to do my best and be proud of my accomplishments.

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Afterwards, I thanked her for the advice and her time. She got up smiling and simply walked out of the room and back to the job she has loved for so many years. I found myself sitting back down for a few minutes to reflect on everything she had just told me. Nursing from yesterday to today has changed not only with the technological advances but even the simplest things. Uniforms are nothing like they were forty years ago. The rules back then could never be enforced today. Some things will never change though, like the simple respect a nurse gives another human being. The profound advice Joan gave me is something I will carry with me for the rest of my personal and professional career.

Work Cited

Gilmore, Joan. Personal interview, 4 June 2009.

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