In Her Steps: Memoirs of Three Years at John Sealy College of Nursing

Through anecdote and example Ellen Beatrice Franke Richter relates her experiences at John Sealy School of Nursing during the World War II years, when the fear of German U-boats in the Gulf of Mexico often required black-outs of the hospital and school on Galveston Island. She describes the first use of penicillin at the hospital and contrasts procedures for using glass, rubber, and metal equipment sterilized in autoclaves with those made possible by the availability of plastics and disposable, single use instruments. Sphygmomanometers and glass thermometers gathered patients’ vital signs which were recorded by careful hand printing on Kardex files. But progress is not always synonymous with change. Bea highlights some of the advances in medical practice since she began her nursing career, while emphasizing the importance that care follow in the steps of Florence Nightingale’s principle of nursing: careful observation and sensitivity to the patient’s needs. Bea observes: The patient waiting in his bed for all the things that are being done to him appreciates the kind and gentle care given by a warm and feeling person who recognizes his needs as a fellow human-being.