Age is no barrier to these veterans
By DEBORAH RIDER ALLEN

In 1952 when Patsy Saville graduated from the Lewis-Gale Hospital School of Nursing and started work at Lewis-Gale Hospital in Salem (now HCA Southwest Virginia Lewis-Gale Medical Center), there was a floor for female patients and a floor for male patients. And when she went to work every day she wore a uniform - white dress, white stockings, white shoes and white cap - and disbursed medications by going from room to room carrying a tray loaded with little paper cups, each filled with pills.

"A lot of things about nursing have changed from what it used to be when I started," said the 76-year-old RN, who went on to become head nurse on the maternity floor before moving to employee health in 1979. She retired in 1998, but three months later when the hospital called her, she returned to do part-time work, which she still does today.

Computers have been one of the biggest changes Saville has seen during her career. "One day they brought in this computer and told us we were supposed to use it. I had never used a computer in my life," said Saville, who credits a volunteer with helping her learn how to use the computer and install programs.

Saville has also watched opportunities grow in the nursing profession from limited positions in the emergency room, maternity floor or the operating room to countless branches that cover the medical spectrum. But it is the interaction with so many different people from so many different backgrounds that has kept her in the nursing profession for 58 years. "It is all I ever wanted to do and I do not think there is anything else I would rather do," she said. "You have to love it to do it that long."

Fredericksburg hospital
1961 was the year Phyllis Bartley graduated from University of Virginia's School of Nursing. After working in a doctor's office and the ER at Williamsburg Community Hospital, she started on the surgical floor at Mary Washington Hospital (now called Mary Washington Healthcare) in 1964. From there she moved to the ER, was the hospital's inspection control officer, was the orthopedic head nurse and is now a pre-op instructor at the Fredericksburg Ambulatory Surgery Center.

"It has been a rewarding career to serve others and has brought me a lot of joy," said the 69-year-old. And while computerization has been the biggest change she has seen, a close second is the change in Fredericksburg and the number of patients they serve.

"Fredericksburg has grown from a community hospital to a medical center. We have a much higher volume of patients but still have to give the personal hands-on care. I think that it has been a challenge to be the patient advocate in the midst of such a volume increase," said Bartley.



But Bartley says that adaptation is a core part of nursing. "When you are in nursing, you have to change and grow to stay on top and continue to be a cutting-edge service," she said. "There is definitely no question that if I had to do it all again, I would still go into nursing. I have loved every minute of it."

Pearisburg area
It was 1966 when Betty Peckgot her RN from the diploma program at Roanoke Memorial School of Nursing and started working at Giles Memorial Hospital in Pearisburg (now Carilion Giles Memorial Hospital). In the last 43 years she has been a staff nurse, a supervisor, assistant director of nursing, director of nursing and a case manager. Today at the brink of her 65th birthday she still does some case management while also working in employee health.

"I have always felt that nursing is a rewarding career," she said. "When I started out as a staff nurse you would see ill people come in and for the most part you see them get better and go back to their lives and go home. It is so nice to be able to help them, and the patients are so appreciative of everything you do for them."

Peckgot feels technological, pharmaceutical and computer advances have had a positive impact on her profession. "With most everything computerized, you can share information between nurses and even share information from doctor's offices. And the technology as far as patient equipment and monitoring devices has really changed," she said. "It used to be there were maybe three or four options for one medication where now there are so many choices and you have to know everything about every medicine." Peck credits her health-care system for offering classes on all the changes to keep nurses up to speed.

Roanoke area
Though Lou Fauber is 82 years old, she did not get her start in nursing until the 1970s. "When our kids were old enough I went to nursing school," said Fauber. "I was a nurse aide for a year and then went to the LPN school at Waynesboro Community Hospital. They had a fireball director of nurses and she went to the community college to get the RN program started there." Fauber was one of 12 nurses from her hospital who were the first class for the RN program. They worked during the day and took classes at night. She graduated in 1976.

Fauber worked for 24 years at Waynesboro Community Hospital. She worked in pediatrics, was head nurse in the ER and then went to work in employee health. When she and her husband retired to their lake house, "I missed it and could not stand it, so I went back to work at Carilion [Roanoke Memorial Hospital] with cardiac and surgery patients, then occupational medicine and then employee health," she said. That was in 1990.

Fauber says that many of the changes she has seen in the nursing profession are very beneficial - technology and computers - while others are hard to get used to. "The old-fashioned way of dealing with a patient was to sit down, hold their hand and talk to them. Everyone is so busy they really do not have time for that anymore," she said. "It is not the nurses' fault; it is the way the medical profession has gone."

Being a self-proclaimed hugger, the no-touching policy is also hard for her. "I just cannot talk to someone and not hug them, so I miss that more than anything," she said. "The last few years in employee health have been great and I love the group I am with now. And my favorite part is when I am helping somebody. And I found out employees need hugs, too."