OVH/Trinity School of Nursing has reunion 105th anniversary

Preparing for December move to EGCC campus

One hundred and five years of education that have produced 2,337 nurses brought cause for celebration when the Ohio Valley Hospital/Trinity School of Nursing Alumni Association held the second of two reunions organized since the association was formed in 2008.

The first was held in celebration of the school of nursing's centennial, observed in 2012.

The Prime Time Senior Center at 300 Lovers Lane, Steubenville, was the setting for Saturday's reunion attended by more than 100 people with Blanche Williams, association president, offering the welcome and introducing guests, including the evening's presenters. They were Judy Owings, director of the Prime Time Senior Center; Melissa Hassan, school of nursing director; and keynote speaker Jefferson County Common Pleas Court Judge Michelle Garcia Miller, a 1984 graduate of the school of nursing whose years in the profession would pique her interest in the law, ultimately resulting in a switch in careers.

Hassan, a 1982 graduate who has worked at the school since 1985 and been its director since 2011, reminded the audience that the school of nursing will be moving to a new location come December, from its home since 1912 at Ohio Valley Hospital, now Trinity East.

But while it will be renting space at the Steubenville campus of Eastern Gateway Community College, it will retain its name and its tradition of quality instruction, she said, noting 56 freshmen are entering the next round of classes at the current location, the spring semester at the new one.

"It's time to do this," Hassan said. "Our building is pretty old and pretty much beyond repair at this point in time."

Hassan said she likes to tell incoming freshmen that "you are my future health care."

Today's students are "so different than the students that most of us were," she said, citing examples as technology changes, electronic records and social media. Patients in the hospital are acutely ill and only there briefly, three days maybe, she added of another difference to years past.

The difference in generations also brought the observation that today's students raised to not talk to strangers are as nursing students instructed to ask a barrage of personal questions of them, Hassan pointed out.

Miller said when she graduated from Buckeye North High School, a girl's career options were largely identified as teacher or nurse. Her father recommended the latter.

"What a blessing going to that school on the hill was, and oddly enough, in my office I can see the third floor where I spent three of the most important years of my life," Miller said. "It taught me so much and how ironic that it was the path that led to the judiciary and becoming a judge," Miller said.

Her nursing background taught her how to advocate and treat all with respect and dignity, a skill that carried over in her work in the legal profession.

Things she experienced as a nurse would pique her interest in the law, and she ultimately found herself "bit by the legal bug," switching gears to return to the classroom and become an attorney, maintain a law practice and serve as a magistrate and solicitor before being elected Nov. 4, 2014, as a Jefferson County Common Pleas Court judge -- the county's first female judge.

"My nursing degree has served me well," Miller said, updating the audience on the new drug court program in place. "It is now certified, and the Supreme Court is coming down in two weeks to give us the final stamp of approval. We have 17 people in our drug court program, we graduated three, and of those three people, all have not reoffended -- that's recidivism in the legal field, the goal of the court.

"My goal is that they continue to be drug free, working, parenting their children, paying their taxes, cutting their grass, just being good residents of Jefferson County. So far we've had some good success. I use a holistic approach in my drug court program just like I did when I was a nurse, constantly using the nursing process, the scientific process, constantly reassessing and implementing and all those good things we were taught to do," she said.

Owings said people who asked her why she gave up nursing for involvement in Prime Time are told, "I really didn't. It's a form of community nursing, and it's program development and what was so badly needed and why I chose to do it."

She said Trinity purchased the former Temple Beth Israel in 2013. "Prior to the center we had delivered meals and transportation, but the center changed things. It's a place where we can help people stay healthy," Owings explained.

Programs that help children connect the dots in their development run parallel to the other end of the spectrum for seniors, according to Owings, who noted the center exists for them to stay independent and thrive.

"One of the things we do is help coordinate and bring people together. That seems to be the biggest thing people long for," Owings said, citing medical journals identifying loneliness and isolation as the biggest health care risk for seniors.

The center has more than 1,200 members; serves daily lunches to as many as 120 to 150; and offers a variety of activities.

"Nursing is being a voice of not only the patient or client but today more than ever, it means being a voice in the community," Owings said. "That is what I hope I am able to do in helping develop these programs."

The banquet, where I served as the master of ceremonies, also included a 50-50 drawing and a Chinese auction, the proceeds of which help fund nursing scholarships the group awards. The association exists to foster professional and social fellowship among graduates, all of whom are welcome to join. It meets twice a year, on the third Wednesday of April and October for a potluck dinner and camaraderie beginning at 5 p.m. at Starkdale Presbyterian Church.

For information, contact Williams by phone at (740) 282-6502 or by e-mail at blanchew301@comcast.net.

Officers aside from Williams are Patty Milosevich and Shirley Costlow, co-vice presidents; Patty Thumm, secretary; and Char Biacco, treasurer.