What do a nurse anesthetist in Birmingham, a director of midwifery at Emory University, a labor and delivery nurse at Northside Hospital, a pediatric office nurse and a hospital data quality analyst have in common? They all got their start at St. Joseph’s Infirmary School of Nursing.
The class of 1969 started having reunions five years after graduation — one year after the nursing school closed its doors. At first, they met every five years, but at the 25-year mark they decided they wanted to gather more often. The group now gets together every 12 to 18 months to reminisce and share their love of nursing.
Members come from all over the country and last year, their former director of nursing, Sister Mary Kristen Lancaster, joined them.
“We were like sisters because we all lived together for three years,” said Deanna Simmons, RN, who practiced and supervised at several Atlanta hospitals before working at Holcomb Bridge Pediatrics for 16 years.
Known as “Aunt Bee,” Simmons is the glue that holds the group together via e-mail.
“I liked helping others and kept three kids for three summers in high school, so it’s not surprising that I became a pediatric nurse,” she said. “Women didn’t have so many choices in those days. You could be a homemaker, a secretary, a flight attendant or a teacher, but I can’t imagine choosing anything but nursing.”
The Class of 1969 started with about 62 students, but many dropped out to get married or because nursing wasn’t a good fit. Thirty-one students graduated from the three-year diploma school, and the group averages about 20 at reunions.
St. Joseph’s nursing students went to school year round and lived in a high-rise dorm across from the old hospital building on Courtland Street.
Sharon Williams Magruder, RN, grew up in Albany, but wanted to attend nursing school in the big city.
“Even though we lived downtown, my parents told me that the nuns would take care of me and keep me out of trouble,” she said.
According to Magruder, life for nursing students was a far cry from today’s world. Students weren’t allowed to go on dates during the week and had a curfew on weekends. Study hours (7 to 9 p.m., no phone calls allowed) were mandatory on weeknights. On the weekends, students could meet dates downstairs in the lounge, known as “The Smoker,” which had a TV, or they went to fraternity parties or the occasional movie.
Mostly, students were immersed in their future profession. Magruder is grateful for the hands-on experience she received during those three years.
“It was a demanding curriculum and schedule. We spent a lot of time on the floors with patients; that was our training,” she said.
Magruder has been a labor and delivery nurse for 45 years and was named Nurse of the Year at Northside Hospital last year.
“Now, nursing students get more academics, but our first year we took core academic courses at Georgia State (University), which allowed a lot of nurses to earn their BSN later,” she said. “Mostly, we ate, slept and breathed nursing, and we grew up together.”
Despite the tough schedule, there was still time for pranks, including the time the class threw Sister Mary Kristen into Lake Callaway at the senior picnic.
“We loved our instructors and they loved us,” Magruder said.
Into the fire
Unlike most undergrads, nursing students were exposed to their profession quickly.
“We were at the bedside giving baths, taking vitals or filling water classes within three weeks of starting school,” said Pam Hendley Rowe, RN, CCS, data quality analyst at Spalding Regional Hospital in Griffin. “We staffed the floors in those days under the direction of the nurses. We were there year round and didn’t get off for holidays, so we were dependent on each other. If you had a bad day, it was your roommate whose shoulder you cried on. That’s why we’re so close.”
Nursing school was hard work but a lot of fun, remembered Dorothy Tully Mullican, RN, BS-PH, CRNA. The young women got to see a bit of the world for two quarters when they traveled to Cincinnati for pediatric clinicals and to Baltimore for psychiatric training.
“I’d never been away from home, really, and that was exciting for an 18-year-old,” said Mullican, who became a nurse anesthetist in 1981.
A different world
The nurses have seen enormous changes in medicine since they started practicing. Magruder remembers when pregnant women were whisked away behind closed doors and labored on stretchers while husbands and family stayed in the waiting room.
“Most women were knocked out for birth and they awoke to find out their baby was a girl or a boy,” she said. “We’ve gone from that to giving the best care in a patient-centered and family-oriented labor and delivery environment.”
Denise McLaughlin, RN, CNMW, MPH, director, nurse mid-wifery service, department of GYN-OB, Emory University School of Medicine.
“I didn’t learn about midwifery until several years after school, but I knew that’s what I wanted to be because I liked birthing babies, direct patient care and taking care of families,” she said.
During nursing school, McLaughlin loved the physical activity of caring for patients for extended periods.
“The nuns taught us to look at people as individuals and to set up goals to meet their different needs,” she said. “I always felt privileged to see people through the transitions and trauma of those times in their lives.”
It doesn’t surprise McLaughlin that her fellow students went on to vastly different careers.
“We were at the end of an era when hospitals trained nurses, but we were a group of very capable young women,” she said. “Those of us who stayed with the program were highly motivated, and we were well prepared.”
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