Anna Louise Tittman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Anna Ettman
own, and pick it up, you see. So that I did.
I was called in from travels, visiting horns, visiting the school
parents. As I said, ny sailor hat was about all that woQd show f'rom the
place where I stood on the platform with a big pedestal iq hnt of me.
I told them that I was taking postgraduate courses, and at: that tim I
had had several. I didn't yet at that time have gradme work fbm
Colwnbia hivemfty. But to make up what the two year course couldn't
give m, I took postgraduate work. I don't know how much hfluence that
had, but it passed.
Q. Who did you give your speech to?
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A. To the House of Representatives. It didn't scare m all. (chuckles)
I was so eager to have the law pass. There were many poi#s in it, so that
the middle ground was found between us. We wanted that l* to pass, you
see, and it did pass. We knew if we got one year of high pchool--now that
wasn't enough to please us entirely--but we thoat then that could grow
as the years went along. The sarne way with the length of the course, it was
two years and it didn't become three years then, but later it did. I: mean
everything is going smoothly, it seem to IIE now in legislbti~ affairs at
this th.
Q. That would man that a girl could be a nurse by the ti* she was about
16 or 17 years old with one year of high school?
A. I don't think they would adn-iit a 16 or 17 year old girl. They had to
have a little maturity anyhow. But lots of people droppedlout, you know.
A lot of them didn't carry the hi& schoolwork in those d#ys.
9. Did you see that your old school [Ph-mWd Hospital, S$rlngfield] is
closing its doors for nursing?
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A. Yes, I ' ve heard that last yew. 'Ihey have made a prorr@e that those who
had entered the school would finish there. I wonder what )lam they are
making. Tne nurses don't all gpt through at one th. Thgy have to put in
the f'ull three years. When they get dm to one or two, hm are they going
to have the teachers? Where a n they wing to get the spqcialized teachers.
They may We sow arrangement with another school for thoqe to join, for
instance, the other nursing school here.
Q. You m~tan St. John's Hospital?
A. I man just for their theory. They could get their prwtice all right.
But I wonder how they are going to fully fill all the need if they're not
training for registered nurses. One of the reasons for closing this 1s because
of the expenses of the scholhl. Well, that remains.
Q. HOW m y years has Memrlal--well, it would've been Sp~~gfield Hospital
at that tb-had a school of nursing when you paduated? Do you how?
A. I know that ours was the only ane here when I padmteg. It was when I
was the secretary and treasurer of the Illinois State Boarr) of Nurse Exm
iners that I helped Sister Phgdalene get their school st-d.