Extolling nursing’s virtues

Extolling nursing’s virtues
By Jane Lerner

When Iola Pollack was studying to be a nurse during World War II, students lived at the hospital, had to get permission to leave on the weekend and looked forward to graduation, when they would earn $10 weekly caring for injured veterans.

And then there were the caps.

“They were so pointy that they used to knock over patients’ IV lines,” the West Haverstraw resident told students at Spring Valley High School.

Nursing has changed greatly since then, Pollack and five other nurses told students during yesterday’s career seminar at the school.

Nursing has become a popular career choice among students at the school, said Lisa Raggo, a teacher who helped organize yesterday’s event.

“There is huge interest in nursing,” she said.

“Nursing is very important,” Carol Landin said. “And it’s a phenomenal career.”

To try to encourage that interest, Landin, a Monsey resident who heads the Hadassah Nurses Council, and two other Rockland nurses, Jacqueline Weinstein of Nanuet and Evelyn Herbert of Pomona, recently took part in a training program sponsored by Johnson & Johnson to teach students about nursing.

“We’ve had wonderful careers as nurses, and we want others to have that same opportunity.” Landin said. “And there is such a need for nurses.”

Since Landin and the two other Rockland nurses took a training course in August to learn how to reach out to students, they have met with young people at the Rockland Board of Cooperative Educational Services and the Ramapo Freshman Center.

They have been encouraged by the level of interest they have encountered.

Students are even more interested when they hear what some starting salaries are.

“On the first interview my stepson went on, he was offered $55,000,” said Jill Ofer, a Nyack resident who trained as a nurse in Israel and served in the military there during two wars.

But Sheryl Santi-Luks was quick to point out that nursing was hard work.

“These days when you are a nurse, you are really doing 10 different jobs,” the Suffern resident said.

Spring Valley students said yesterday that high salaries and a near-guaranteed job weren’t the only reasons they wanted to pursue nursing careers.

“I want to help people,” said senior Anne Saintfort, who lives in Monsey. “I want to take care of people.”

Many students said they wanted to follow the example of relatives who were nurses.

“My mother likes being a nurse, but she doesn’t like the hours,” said Gerlynn Germain, a 15-year-old Spring Valley resident.

The nurses showed students a chart outlining different types of work done by nurses.

Students said they learned things about nursing yesterday.

“If you don’t like being in a hospital, there are other places you can work,” said Rebecca Scott, a 10th-grader from Spring Valley. “You have so many choices.”