School of Nursing Scrapbook 1979

- PROMOTING WELLNESS - Today's RN caring for healthy 'clients'

When Catherine Schafer land– ed her first job as a registered nurse in 1935, she worked 12 hours a day and was paid 50 cents an hour. She spent most of her time cleaning. Today, Schafer, 65, is a full– time student at the Philip Y. Hahn School of Nursing at the University of San Diego. She is working toward a bachelor's de– gree in nursing - and dreams of the day she will set up her own private nursing practice. "Today nursing means getting out into the public and promot– ing a feeling of wellness," Schafer said. "It means looking at human beings from socio– psycho-physiological points of view. "Nurses today call people who they deal with c::lients - because many of them aren't sick. Our function -is teaching them to take care of themselves so they don't get sick." Like most students working toward a degree, Schafer is re– quired to get practical experi– ence in the field. That's where 90-year-old Katheryn Overbeck comes in the picture. Overbeck is in good

health, yet several times a week she becomes Schafer's "client." "I'm learning how to converse with the elderly and see what their problems are," Schafer explained. "You could call this sort of an in-the-field communi– cations skills class." Schafer said she and Over– beck discuss everything from diet and blood pressure to po~– ble emotional problems. The talks, said Schafer, keep Over– beck physically and emotionally healthy. In a world where health care costs are rising daily, and where 40-million Americans are not protected by any type of health insurance, many people stay away from doctors until they are experiencing serious health problems. According to one official at the Hahn School, it's what makes the health care system in our country "a sickness system." But it's a system that nurses like Schafer are in the p~ of trying to change. In her words, "Nursing today is preventative medicine." - Alison DaRosa

HEL':PING HAND -

Nurse Catherine Schafer, left, visits with

Kathryn Overbeck at Cathedral Plaza Retirement Home.