Nallely Gutierrez, NTCC Librarian Heather Shaw and Dorali Gutierrez, Receiving 48-page histories of nursing at Baylor.
By: Dr. Andrew Yox, NTCC Honors Director
As the United States for the first time this December has gone over the 100,000-mark,[1] in the number of COVID hospitalizations, it is perhaps of some consolation to know that nurses remain the most trusted profession in the country.[2] In fact, they are number one. Almost every year. A side-effect of their non-stop care is that few nurses ever have the time to reflect on their experiences. According to NTCC history professor, Dr. Andrew Yox, for example, there is nowhere to go for a history of nursing in Texas. With its nonunionized nurses, and strong emphasis on holistic care, the story of Texas nursing might well produce some significant and unique perspectives.
Enter two pre-nursing scholars of Honors Northeast, Nallely Gutierrez, from Mount Vernon, and Dorali Hernandez, from Mount Pleasant, who have been attempting to construct such narratives this past semester. Had these young scholars tried this thirty years ago, without access to an archive, the possibilities would have been fairly limited. But thanks to new online databases, both scholars have been creating 400-word, mini-essays every week during the fall semester. One resource?—Heather Shaw, NTCC’s Reference Librarian. Shaw has enabled a number of NTCC student publications in Texas history. Perhaps the most notable was Jazmin Garcia’s 2019 article in Touchstone, published by the Texas State Historical Association, which subsisted on an autobiography of Texas First Lady, Mildred Moody, which Shaw unearthed from a North Texas University digital archive. Shaw has helped many other student scholars into print such as Emmalea Shaw (no relation), who published on integration in Northeast Texas, and Morgan Martin, who published work on the fall of Pilgrim’s Pride.
Gutierrez, and Hernandez have also profited from interviews. Cynthia Amerson, former director of NTCC’s nursing program, and now a nursing professor at Collin College shared her own story. It began with a bright young California girl, reading Cherry Ames novels, and wanting to go to the best of nursing schools—Baylor, in Texas! A former NTCC benefactor, her father, Joe Bernat, was not so sure in the late 1970s that that was a good idea. But Amerson has cherished Texas as a superior destination for nurses all during her career. And eventually her parents followed her to Texas
The attempt to create modern histories of nursing in Texas has also benefitted immensely from interviews with Dr. Karen Koerber Timmons, Director of NTCC’s nursing programs. Timmons has also provided a unique geographical perspective, coming from West Virginia, and again, assessing how various philosophies, and state associations of nursing effect various levels of care.
“Rising acuity levels and legislative mandates still have failed to regiment the nurses I have known in Texas,” notes Timmons. “Texas nurses maintain a valued tradition of being able to think for themselves.”
Honors Director, Yox, notes, “It is so exciting to see ways in which our community here can rally behind students who have an ambition to attain new perspectives. In the cases of the history of Texas and local nursing, we can hope with some justification that Gutierrez, and Hernandez might provide the world with stories that need telling.”
[1] https://covidtracking.com/data/charts/us-currently-hospitalized
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/01/11/americas-most-least-trusted-professions-infographic/?sh=51c05d4d7e94
