LWV, Hospital Host A Salute to Nursing
Pictured Above: Stony Brook Southampton Hospital physicians and nurses during the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic in the protective isolation gowns locally produced and hand-assembled by over 100 dedicated East End volunteers.
The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island and North Fork, along with Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and the Rogers Memorial Library, are co-sponsoring a live program, “A Salute to Nursing Past and Present,” on Monday, April 3 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Library, 91 Coopers Farm Road in Southampton.
The League’s Health Committee Chair Valerie King, PhD, who organized the event, will serve as moderator, speaking about the early collaboration between nurses and suffragists.
Susan B. Anthony, for example, served as keynote speaker at the 1902 New York State Nurses Convention, and both Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross in 1881, and Lavinia Dock, who formed what later became the American Nurses Association, worked for women’s suffrage.
Dr. King will also cover the history of the nursing school affiliated with Southampton Hospital.
The panelists, who will talk about the challenges nurses face and the complexity of their work, include: Althea Mills, Chief of Nursing and Vice President of Patient Care Services at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital; Jennifer Schmidt of SBSH, speaking about nursing in a busy medical unit; Marie Barnes of SBSH, speaking about nursing in the ICU; Catherine O’Brien of SBSH, speaking about psychiatric nursing; and Mary Crosby, President and CEO of East End Hospice.
The program will be taped by Southampton Town’s SUN20TV and available for viewing about a week later on their channel at YouTube.com/@Sun20TVSouthampton.
The library requires registration on the library’s website at myrml.org or by emailing programs@myrml.org or phoning 631.283.0774, ext. 523.
“Please join us in learning about and saluting and honoring our local nurses,” said Dr. King.
