Dale Abendroth began her Nursing career in California in 1972 after graduating from Los Angeles Valley College with her ADN. Her first job as a nurse was in critical care (a combination intensive care unit/critical care unit). She has seen some changes in nursing practice in her 44 year career—most of them driven by technology. She has always embraced technology, striving “to be so comfortable with [it] that it did not interfere or draw my attention away from the person…[using] it as a tool rather than a crutch to provide more evidence to my physical assessment findings.”
Nursing: 1972 vs Today
“The scope of care was very similar to today’s scope…but we didn’t have all the technology to inform our decisions. We had the capacity to monitor patient’s EKG but only at the desk, no monitor in the patient rooms and the only hemodynamic monitoring device was a Central Venous Pressure (CVP) line which reflects the pressures found in the right side of the heart. Given the lack of technology, our assessment skills were highly developed so we were able to pick up subtle changes that indicated either a decline or improvement in physical status.”
Teaching has always been a part of her nursing practice—from providing pre-operative teaching for open-heart surgical patients and their families to keeping patients and families informed about the medications, therapies and tests that they were receiving. She enjoyed precepting new nurses and teaching her colleagues about new technology. After shadowing a favorite nursing instructor she returned to school and finished her BSN at Cal State Los Angeles with a special option of critical care. She became an educator at St John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, responsible for the development and instruction of a several week course for Med/Surg RNs wanting to transition into critical care, as well as providing continuing education for RNs already working in critical care. Her first class was a week long course on EKG interpretation—her mother (also an RN) was a student in the class!
After working as a nurse educator for several years, Abendroth missed direct-patient care. She returned to critical care nursing for a few years before pursuing her MN at UCLA. Although quite experienced in critical care by 1983, she decided to pursue a psych-mental health option called consultation liaison. This specialty prepared her to work with patients and families without mental illness that were facing a crisis because of serious health issues. During her final semesters, she worked with patients and families undergoing heart transplantation (quite new in 1984-85). She also worked with the nursing staff to mitigate the effects of working in a high-stress area.
“There is a special blessing about being part of the inner circle when people are facing serious illness or injury and being their advocate and comforter at a time when they feel that everything seems to be out of control and they are extremely vulnerable. I have always considered it a privilege to provide excellent care and comfort—physically and psychologically—to be the patient’s life-line for lack of a better term.”
Following graduation, Abendroth took her first ‘official’ job as an academic educator at Mt. St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles where she taught both med/surg, critical care and psychiatric-mental health content to undergraduate BSN students. She provided clinical supervision in these areas as well while continuing to work at UCLA in the critical care unit (CCU). She and her husband moved to Spokane in 1988 and Abendroth joined the staff of Sacred Heart Medical Center’s CCU (with current Gonzaga Nursing faculty Drs. Lin Murphy and Jane Tiedt). One of just a few RN’s with a master’s degree (and extensive experience in CCU), she quickly became one of the lead RNs in training the staff in the post-operative care of open-heart patients. Abendroth joined the nursing faculty at Gonzaga in August 1989. While at Gonzaga, she earned a Doctorate in Leadership Studies. Abendroth laughingly recalls walking across stage to be hooded at commencement, “looking out and seeing all the MSN graduates giving me a standing ovation…pretty amazing.”
Nursing—direct patient care—has always been meaningful to her. Teaching became an extension of this same work. Her years of experience informed her work as a faculty member. “I bring first-hand knowledge about what it takes to care for patients/families. I think I have a great appreciation of the commonalities and the unique differences of individuals. And…since nursing is such an integral component of healthcare that I’ve experienced first-hand, it carries great responsibility to ensure that my students are adequately prepared to fully function in the RN role.”
It is with fond regret that SNHP bids Dr. Abendroth adieu!
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