Off the Charts

By Cara Gewolb, BSN. Cara lives in New York City and in January completed an accelerated 15-month BSN program at New York University College of Nursing for those with previous bachelor’s degrees. This longer-than-usual post was passed along to us by Barbara Glickstein, a producer and host of Healthstyles radio show, where Cara recently talked about her grandmother’s career as a public health nurse. We post it today in honor of Nurses’ Week—and also in honor of all the nurses who have recently graduated and are looking for work in a tight market.

My grandmother Frances Reichman Lubin had been the only nurse in her family until I received a BSN in January. As a new nurse I’m a bit unsure of myself, but I’m looking for work and excited to enter my profession. While I’m interested in becoming an ER or ICU nurse, my grandmother’s diverse career reminds me to stay open to opportunity. Her career extended from the 1940s to 1970s and encompassed stints as an army nurse, public health nurse, ICU nurse, teacher, and administrator, as well as time off to raise children and further her nursing education. I keep her example as a funny, gutsy woman who always kept her sense of purpose in my sights as I go forward. She died two years ago, after several years of dementia, but growing up I heard many stories from her and also from my grandfather.

No ‘calling’—just necessity. I was surprised and a little upset to learn that my Grandma Fran’s decision to become a nurse didn’t come from a deep “calling” within her. But her circumstances were very different from mine. She went into nursing to help support her brother Sidney through medical school. She grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, during the Great Depression and her family was very poor, so she didn’t have the luxury of choosing what she wanted to do with her life.  Her family convinced her to pursue nursing because it was considered a low-paying, but stable, career.

Stuck stateside. Frances entered the U.S. Army after she received her RN degree in 1941 from Capitol City School of Nursing in Washington, D.C. She wanted to go overseas when the U.S. entered World War II, but due to a back injury she was stationed instead at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Like all other nurses in the Army Nurse Corps, Frances was commissioned as a second lieutenant. She later rose to first lieutenant. My grandfather Samuel Lubin, her friend at the time and future husband, was required to salute her because he was a sergeant.

‘Tight regimen’ gives new hope for wounded soldiers. Grandma Fran’s most memorable time at Walter Reed took place when she was transferred to a unit for badly wounded soldiers, many with amputated limbs. She was appalled by the conditions on the floor and by the patients’ poor hygiene as well as habits such as nonstop poker playing and smoking. It seemed to her that the staff had given up on these men and that the men had given up on themselves. On her third day, she stood in front of the men and announced in her tough Southern voice that major changes were being instituted. She started the men on a rigorous regimen of bathing, grooming, and exercises.  She also ordered books to be sent from the hospital library and began a book club.

A few months later, the patients found out Nurse Reichman was being transferred to a different unit.  Read the rest of this entry ?