A Tale of Four dollars and Fifty cents

To All Nurses, Happy Nurses’ Week!

To All Nurses, who are moms, soon to be moms, godmothers, Happy Mother’s Day!

To all who have ever had a passion to help others, this tale is for you.

For me, being a nurse and wanting to be a nun were very distinct yet shared similar aspects.

For me, helping my fellow man was in line with serving God.

For me, becoming a nurse was a calling and most would agree.

I began my journey as a nursing student back in the mid-eighties, which, while so long ago, seems like just yesterday.

I was in my last year of nursing school and felt that working in my chosen field would give me an edge. Little did I know how much my life would be changed and affected.

I went to several job interviews looking to be hired as a nursing student.

It was an amazing journey and a very humbling experience.

I was hired at the local county hospital.

I worked weekends part-time on a general pediatric ward for an hourly wage of four dollars and fifty cents.

To my amazement, I was allowed to take on a full assignment, usually sixteen patients, and perform all patient treatments like a full-time nurse except for giving medications.

In no time, I was accepted into the fold.

I was treated as a regular staff and would occasionally be pulled to work in the intensive care unit with stable patients who were awaiting transfer to the general pediatric ward.

The pediatric ward was a fifty-two-bed unit with a section of eight cribs/beds close to the intensive care units that served as the intermediate area.

There were separate sections on opposite sides of the unit for males and females (16 beds each), a short bowel syndrome room (infants on feeding pumps and parenteral nutrition) (six beds), and an isolation section (six rooms).

Moreover, it was common to have pediatric patients reside at the hospital, living in isolation rooms because of their unique medical conditions.

While four dollars and fifty cents an hour would probably be scoffed at by most, the unique and unduplicable nursing experiences that I learned on that pediatric ward were most invaluable. After graduation and passing my boards, I worked as a full-time pediatric nurse until I was selected with other staff to open the Pediatric Intermediate Unit in the late eighties. Of note, a year later, the hourly rate for student nurses did increase to nine dollars per hour, but the nursing students were limited to functioning as nursing assistants. Hence, these nursing students never obtained the ability to work in their capacity nor share in the experiences afforded me while a nursing student. Nevertheless, I eventually moved on to other areas of nursing, other pavilions at the local county hospital, and eventually to Quality Management, where my journey in Utilization Review led to my current role as a Medical Reviewer III.

As with all things and times, the pediatric ward began to experience a decline in pediatric admissions and eventually shut down some twenty or so years later.

By Yarnell McGee RN, BSN, CPCM, CPC