Nurses that you remember

What a great thread idea! I have a tremendous amount of respect and affection for the "old school" nurses. I'm talking about the type I thought was a battle-axe when I was a young nurse in the seventies. They were the no-nonsense type, all gruff and kind at the same time, God bless 'em. Here are a few of mine:

Mrs. Van H- one of my instructors, an ex-Navy nurse who, even wearing street clothes had that military bearing, was our stickler for skirt length and starched caps. I remember the arduously perfect printing she had, as she explained that day shift nurses charted in black ink printing, evening shift nurses charted in green ink, night shift in red ink. It was a work of art, her printing. She was the only one who gave me a remark that approached a compliment, nearly growling, "I think you have the potential to be a good bedside nurse". She actually wrote me up when my hair fell out of the bobbie pins one day.

Audrey G.- this was the lady who was old school and aging, but slight in stature and hair dyed a flaming red color. We didn't see a lot of her, because she had been diagnosed recently with Huntington's Disease and her nervous system was deteriorating. She did however, by apparent sheer force of will, meet with all us new nurses once each. I remember so well seeing her talk to me about her love of nursing, wearing that stiff snow white cap against the red hair,wearing bright red lipstick-- and not being able to get the words out properly but persevering-- as she needed to say those words and the involuntary movement of her neck and face. (Oh, Lord now I've gone and made myself cry.)

Betty- she was the fun nurse that could charm any recalcitrant child (worked in peds) and also a very freckled redhead. She literally would offer to do a dance for a child if he slurped up that god-awful stuff in the cup. She kept up her part of the bargain, too. Sort of an Irish jig tap dance thing, I think. She ended up with a laughing 4 year old who just forgot about that icky stuff altogether.

Last, my Aunt Nellie. I'm not sure if she had an RN license for sure, but she was the "baby nurse" for countless babies in our extended family. She was a live-in for several weeks, but she always wore a crisp white uniform and those white orthopedic looking shoes. She reassured many a terrified new first time mom, and in our family she had the authority of God when it came to babies. I only remember her as "old". She was always old to me. She didn't need to do this. She wanted to and did, I am sure, until the old bod just wouldn't do it anymore.

Thanks for starting this thread, that was a fun trip down memory lane for me!:)

Genie S. - tiny in stature; took up with some guy and left the school without notice or so we were told;

Joyce ? - former nun; beautiful eyes, gentle, kind, complimented me on something I did in the way of taking initiative to change a policy I didn't think was fair;

Penny H - impressed by my composure when doing my first bandage change; allowed no students to nurse her when she gave birth; can we blame her?

Peg L - crotchety, unfriendly Ortho instructor; knew her stuff, just not friendly or popular; drove 2 hours each way, each day; first lesbian I ever heard of;

Mrs. C - only black instructor ('70's); OB; nice, knowledgeable, pretty; just now retired from DON position;

an Asian RN I worked with as an aide - had trouble telling us to do this or that; I think it was cultural, as it was probably considered to be too direct in her culture; used to irk me at the time, now I think I understand;

Asian supervisor who would tell me I had filled out a certain paper wrong, but never told me exactly how to do it right in the first place; an Asian coworker said it would be considered rude of her to tell me. Ruder than me having to re-do it 4 times? Just goes to show - things aren't always what we think they are.

Ms. P - many of you have probably used her textbooks;

Betty C and Judy S - conniving, dishonest, evil as the day is long - a pox on them - my first HN and AHN;

evil, foul-tempered wenches on ER evening & night shifts - would rarely speak to lowly new grad me, would never help or teach (at least, not nicely), very rude and unfriendly, grew fat on eating many young nurses; a pox on them, too; brought their personal unhappiness to work and poured it out on all of us who had to work with them;

Pat ? - HN who no more belonged as an HN than I did; afraid to step on toes; of course, this was when it was completely unacceptable to hold minorities accountable for any wrongdoing. I know this might offend some of you, but it's the truth. As a minority myself, I was always embarrassed when I'd see majority bosses cater to minority employees who were in the wrong. Is it any wonder we have problems in this area?

Mrs. S - used to ride my friend so badly; of course, friend sort of had it coming; She would not bow down or kiss backsides the way most of us did and she was very outspoken. Not sure what my friend, a convicted drug addict, was doing in nursing school to begin with but she was really feisty.

Mom, aka Dorothy - I sure loved her, a fellow student, a little older, and LPN, never slept, worked full time, not sure how she ever made it through school and was still always friendly and nice.

I guess I could go on but that's enough. Like most of you, a mixture of good and terrible.