Abby DeJong and Danielle Davis, researchers and authors.
Wanda Kling , Marilyn Liming and Lonita Zorn became friends and nurses at the same time. These women display a great sense of dedication to their work. They represent more than a century of nursing care. From them we learned that nursing is more than just a job; its a life`s calling.
Lonita Zorn`s childhood dream was to be a nurse. It was something that she had always wanted to do and so she did. Wanda Kling`s older sisters were nurses, so it was just the thing to do. She didn`t think she would mind it too badly. Marilyn Liming`s decision was reached a little differently. Her cousin was going to nurses` training and she wanted Marilyn to go to New York with her after graduation. Marilyn asked her parents. They said, ``We`ll let you go, but you have to start nurses` training after you get back.`` That is how they all became nurses.
When the three nurses` started training, they didn`t know each other. But after attending classes together, they became good friends. They had each started a few days early to take advantage of the Cadet Nursing Program a federally funded program which paid for their training and gave them spending money. They received $15 a month the first year, $20 a month the second year, and $30 a month the third year.
The first three months of training was basic book work at Augustana College. The fourth month they started actual floor training. They worked eight hours on the floor and still attended classes. This meant they would ten to twelve-hour days, six days a week. So in a day if they had five hours of school they would have to work five hours on the floor. But if they were on night duty, then they would go to school during the day, and to work the full eight hours during the night.
During nurses training, nurses were not allowed to be married. The school did not want that to interfere with their training. That rule wasn`t changed until 1961 or 1962. Even then, it was only permitted the last six months and they had to have permission from the school administrator. While they were in training they all became very good friends.
While in training, Wanda had to care for the isolation patients. Isolation patients were put in a building separate from the hospital. This unit sat out on the roof of the second floor. So Wanda had to go out there and care for this patient for her full eight hour shift everyday for two weeks. The woman had diphtheria and Wanda had to make sure she was always clean. Wanda always wore masks and caps to protect herself. Wanda commented, ``The lady in there was really nice, and we had a lot of fun.``
They all started training in 1945, and graduated in 1948. And that was the year of the polio epidemic. It was very devastating, it affected many people of all ages. The type of polio that hit was the Bulbar type, which affected the chest and the breathing. The hospital needed many iron lungs. The hospital put a plea out for the iron lungs and they received them from all over the U.S. Sioux Falls was one of the places most hardly hit, they even had to call in the Red Cross nurses to help.
They all were ready to start their careers and wanted to get away from the Sioux Falls area. Marilyn was working in the polio ward and Lonita was on nights. Wanda was in surgery. They were all just out of training and had a lot of responsibility. Marilyn was thinking about joining the Red Cross, so she turned in her resignation.
Mr. Rogers, who was recruiting nurses to go down to Belle Fourche where they were opening a new addition, had been given Marilyn`s name because she had just turned in her resignation. So he told her about the hospital and what was needed. She told him that she would talk to her friends. They decided they would go. They told him they wanted to stay together, and he told them he would take them all.
They headed to Belle Fourche by bus in August. It was very hot. They each had one suitcase and they weren`t sure what they were getting themselves into. Before they left Sioux Falls, co-workers and friends wondered why they would want to go there. It was way out in the boonies . . . they even heard that they still herded sheep down Main Street. But for them, it was a new adventure. When they reached Belle Fourche they weren`t encouraged. At the time, they were putting the streets in, so the roads were all tore up and muddy. They couldn`t get from place to place, and when they first got there they had no place to live . . . they were starting to ask themselves why they had come out here.
The administrator had told the hospital board of directors that he had found the nurses and they would need to find them a place to live. George Johnson, who was on the hospital board of directors and worked at the first national bank at the time, and his wife Addy, opened up their house to all five of the nurses. It wasn`t a large house . . . they had two bedrooms and a bathroom. It was good that they all worked different shifts, so while one was working the others could sleep. The five nurses just became part of the family. Lonita said, ``They were the most marvelous people you could ever meet. It was really great how two people would open their home up to five people just so the town would have nurses.`` The Johnson`s had to be very patient, since the nurses were coming in and out at all times of the day.
There are a lot of things that they did different then they do now. One thing was their equipment. Their IV`s came in glass bottles, and the nurses made their own IV tubing to administer the solution. They had glass syringes, which also needed to be sterilized. They had to sharpen their own needles, and check for burrs. If blood was needed, they had to call in donor after donor until they found a match. Their rubber gloves were also reused. These had to be washed and sterilized and checked for holes. They could patch them, but the patched ones could only be used in obstetrics, not in surgery. They reused the sponges after surgery. These bloody sponges had to be washed, stretched, and dried.
Patient care was also a lot different. Patients stayed much longer than they do now, and obstetrics patients stayed 7 to 10 days. Since the patients stayed longer, that meant way more nursing time.