Volume 59, Issue 12  - November 6, 2006

Celebration spotlights nursing education
By Hugo Rodriguez
Staff Writer

Diego Lerma/Collegian

Jeremiah Conde, a vocational nursing student, helps UTB/TSC President Juliet V. Garcia cut a cake in celebration of the 50th anniversary of nursing education in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Also shown are Estella Ramirez (second from left), who graduated from the Canales School of Nursing in 1956, and Luz Silva, a lecturer in the Nursing Department. The event was held Oct. 27 in the Life and Health Sciences courtyard.

Nursing education’s past and future were celebrated Oct. 27 at UTB/TSC.

The university marked the 50^th anniversary of nursing education in Brownsville with speeches and a reception in the Life and Health Sciences Building Courtyard.

Honorees were Estella Ramirez, a graduate of the Canales School of Nursing, the first college-based vocational nursing program in the Rio Grande Valley; Margarita Barradas, who directed the vocational nursing program from 1968 to 1991; and Rosemary Breedlove, vice chair of the Texas Southmost College board of trustees.

Ramirez reminisced about the Canales School of Nursing.

“We had a very good instructor, Sister Mary Ambrose. … She made sure that we followed everything she taught us,” Ramirez said.

About the role of nurses, she said, “Every patient’s need is our responsibility, no matter what it is. … It’s never somebody else’s job.”

Barradas talked about nursing graduates past and present.

“It is they who are carrying forward the labors that we were generous to give,” she said. “And from what I hear, they’re succeeding, not only [in] their own vocation, but at many other … responsible positions.”

Barradas also talked about the responsibilities of nursing.

“When we talk about responsibilities in nursing, we talk about accomplishments, because somebody’s always looking at the quality of what you’ve done,” she said. “So you’d better own up to what you’re doing, because in conscience, you know that really no one has to measure that, that you measure that yourself.”

Breedlove sees a bright future for the university’s nursing program.

“What an opportunity we here at UTB/TSC have,” she said. “We could become one of the leading schools of nursing, graduating bilingual nurses, which are in great demand throughout the country, and at the same time, we would be providing opportunities for the whole community. What it takes is a vision and a commitment by our leaders both in the academic level and the political arena.”
UTB/TSC President Juliet V. García said, “People in the Valley go without nursing care and health care every day, and it’s our responsibility to make sure that … we change that.”

She said a goal of the university is to build an independent school of nursing and double the production levels of today.

Also present at the celebration were Rachel Gomez, a licensed vocational nurse representing the State of Texas Board of Nurse Examiners, Katherine Dougherty, chair of the UTB/TSC Nursing Department; and Eldon Nelson, dean of the School of Health Sciences.

About 100 people attended the event, which was hosted by the School of Health Sciences.