Nursing School

Camden County College soon may have a new nursing school to house its expanding program. A resolution passed Tuesday by the Camden County College Board of Trustees would allow for the construction of a $5 million nursing school on the Blackwood campus at no cost to taxpayers. The new facility would measure 36,000 square feet and would replace the existing nursing school at West Jersey Hospital in Camden. The proposal was approved Wednesday by West Jersey Health Systems, owner of the hospital.

Following a nationwide trend, hospital-based nursing school programs in the Northeast showed a healthy increase in enrollments this year, according to officials. Enrollment at Frankford Hospital's School of Nursing rose 45 percent over the previous year of 110 students, according to Marian Walkowski-Mote, associate director of the hospital's nursing school, Frankford Avenue and Wakeling Street. Nazareth Hospital, which has a small, 24-month master's program in nurse anesthesiology, has 17 students this year - a 42 percent increase from the 12 students in 1988, said Bill Discavage, program director at the school, 2601 Holme Ave. These statistics reflect a national turnaround that began last year, reversing the downward trend of 1983 to 1987, when enrollment dropped almost a third, according to a Nursingworld Journal survey released earlier this year.

Paul Stewart is on the verge of a major career change, and the state of Pennsylvania is delighted. Since 1981, when he graduated from Norristown High School, Stewart has worked as a janitor. He has two jobs, one of them at Norristown State Hospital, a sprawling 966-bed psychiatric institution, the other at an emergency mental health service not far away. The work is fine if not thrilling, Stewart said. He might have continued on his current course, he said, had he not gone to a meeting a few weeks ago held by Norristown State Hospital's personnel department.

'HOW ARE you going to go back to school with six babies and a mother and aunt who are fighting cancer? You're crazy!" Those were the words I constantly heard when contemplating nursing school. With five children under the age of 4 and against all odds, I started nursing school at La Salle University. My only motivation has been my children and that so many women give up at their dreams when they are a single parent. I have one boy and five girls (two sets of twins). They range in age from 5 to 13 years old. Two days after starting nursing school, I married my longtime fiancé.

Sixteen years ago, the Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing could hardly keep pace with the local demand for nursing education. It was accepting 80 students per class for its three-year diploma program, maintaining a healthy waiting list of prospective candidates and turning away more than a few applicants. It also was well on its way to training more than 3,000 nurses. But times have changed for the hospital-based school in Lower Merion Township, which three months ago celebrated the 90th anniversary of its founding by seven Lutheran deaconesses from Iserlohn, Westphalia, who had been trained in the fashion of the first modern nurse, Florence Nightingale.

Gwynedd-Mercy College has received a $5 million gift - the largest from an alumnus - from Frances M. Maguire, a 1955 graduate, to name the school's nursing program, officials announced yesterday. The gift, creating the Frances M. Maguire School of Nursing, was unveiled at a board of trustees meeting this week. It comes two weeks before the nursing school celebrates its 50th anniversary. "I have always been a believer in remembering where I came from and giving back in some way to those who have helped me to get where I am today," Maguire, of Wyndmoor, said in a statement.

At 27, Brenden D. Garozzo will be a spring chicken among some tougher birds as the administrator of Gloucester County's Shady Lane Nursing Home. Last week, the county Board of Freeholders appointed Garozzo, of East Greenwich Township, to the job of overseeing the 120-bed long-term-care home, which is the county government's largest unit. "I'm anxious to work with the residents and I'm anxious to work with the staff," Garozzo said. "I've heard nothing but good things about Shady Lane.

Marcella Singleton, 16, was sitting in the principal's office at William Penn High School yesterday morning when two women dressed in crisp summer suits edged into the room. Peggy Sinnott, director of nursing at Mercy Catholic Medical Center in Darby, and Lisa Lewis, the center's nursing recruiter, along with school principal Odette Harris, had a surprise for the hard-working sophomore, who dreams of becoming a registered nurse: She had been awarded a $3,000 grant to enter nursing school in two years.

Mystery lingers about a Chester County nurse and mother who left a party at a 76er player's home in Penn Valley on Aug. 23, 2009, and vanished. Now, a TV show is taking up the case - and its dearth of clues. An episode of Disappeared on the Investigation Discovery network at 9 p.m. Monday will explore the mystery of Toni Lee Sharpless, who was 29 when she planned a night on the town and never returned. "I just hope this reaches the right people, and our daughter is brought home to us," said Sharpless' mother, Donna S. Knebel.

A starving Polish jeweler liberated from a Nazi concentration camp by soldiers from Gen. George Patton's Third Army asked Pvt. Dave Kershaw whether he would like him to make duplicate "pre-engagement" rings from two U.S. silver dollars, one for himself and the other for his girlfriend in South Jersey. Her name would be on one side of each ring, his on the other. Kershaw, a native of Mount Ephraim who was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1944 and who survived the Battle of the Bulge, was thrilled by the jeweler's heartfelt gesture.

In an initiative that will be highlighted Wednesday at the University of Pennsylvania, the nation's nursing schools have pledged to increase training of current and future nurses about the "invisible wounds of war": post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and post-combat depression. Michelle Obama and Jill Biden will speak on campus about the new program as part of a two-day national tour celebrating the one-year anniversary of their Joining Forces campaign to help soldiers and their families.

A starving Polish jeweler liberated from a Nazi concentration camp by soldiers from Gen. George Patton's Third Army asked Pvt. Dave Kershaw whether he would like him to make duplicate "pre-engagement" rings from two U.S. silver dollars, one for himself and the other for his girlfriend in South Jersey. Her name would be on one side of each ring, his on the other. Kershaw, a native of Mount Ephraim who was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1944 and who survived the Battle of the Bulge, was thrilled by the jeweler's heartfelt gesture.

Keisha is a smart, kind, and well-behaved 18-year-old with a great sense of humor. Patient and nurturing, she likes to help people and especially enjoys working with children. Because of this, Keisha would like to attend college and then pursue a career as a nurse. She enjoys reading and listening to music. If Keisha could have three wishes, they would be to have a mentor who would help her apply to, and succeed in, nursing school, to have a laptop computer, and to own a car. More immediate goals include overcoming her shyness and learning to style her hair.

Some mothers and daughters hit the mall. Others get manicures together. Still others lace up and bond over a run. But Susan Cooke and daughter Tara are a little different. The two Mullica Hill women shared a calling, eventually a career, and, right now, they share a college. Susan Cooke, a nurse for 29 years, is working toward her master's in nursing leadership at Drexel University Online. Pursuing her degree online lets her continue with her job as an intensive-care unit nursing manager with Kennedy Health System in Stratford.

MAYS LANDING, N.J. - A 20-year-old Camden man arrested in a deadly Atlantic City casino carjacking was ordered held on $1 million bail at a brief hearing Wednesday at which a list of charges - including murder and weapons offenses - was read. Shackled, handcuffed, and wearing orange jail garb, Phillip Byrd, 20, of the 1500 block of Wildwood Avenue, seemed to saunter into the courtroom and stood with his head slightly cocked as Atlantic County Chief Assistant Prosecutor John Maher read the charges against him. The carjacking began around 8 a.m. Sunday in a parking garage at Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort and ended about 20 minutes later in an alley several blocks away.

Barbara Rosenblum Zeid, 77, of Cherry Hill, a former executive with the women's auxiliary of the New Jersey Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons, died of complications from pneumonia Friday, June 3, at Albert Einstein Medical Center. She was vice president of the New Jersey organization in 1977 and president from 1978 through 1980, daughter-in-law Tracey Zeid wrote. The group named Mrs. Zeid its woman of the year in 1981. In 1988-89 and 1992-93, Mrs. Zeid was national president of the auxiliary of the American Osteopathic Association, her daughter-in-law wrote, and in 2000, she was an adviser to the group's student association auxiliary.

Sister Helen Martin, 85, a Franciscan nun who ran nursing schools at three East Coast hospitals, died of cardiovascular disease Thursday, June 9, at Assisi House, the retirement home for the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, in Aston, Delaware County. Most recently, Sister Helen was a nurse at Our Lady of Angels Convent, across the road from Assisi House, from 1994 to 2007. Sister Helen was director of the schools of nursing at three hospitals, all named St. Joseph - in Baltimore from 1961 to 1970, in Lancaster from 1970 to 1974, and in Reading from 1974 to 1989.

'HOW ARE you going to go back to school with six babies and a mother and aunt who are fighting cancer? You're crazy!" Those were the words I constantly heard when contemplating nursing school. With five children under the age of 4 and against all odds, I started nursing school at La Salle University. My only motivation has been my children and that so many women give up at their dreams when they are a single parent. I have one boy and five girls (two sets of twins). They range in age from 5 to 13 years old. Two days after starting nursing school, I married my longtime fiancé.

Mary Farley Maiden, 78, of Roxborough, a former nursing-home inspector who advocated individualized patient care, died of cancer Saturday, May 7, at the Visiting Nurse Association Hospice in East Falls. Mrs. Maiden grew up in the Wissahickon section and graduated from St. John's High School in Manayunk. After graduating from Misericordia Hospital School of Nursing in 1955, she was a nurse at a public health clinic in Philadelphia. She then joined the staff at Roxborough Memorial Hospital, where she taught in the nursing school.

WHO WAS THAT little girl hiding under the desk, and what was she doing? All the other girls at Elisha Kent Kane Elementary School were learning to cook, clean and sew. But Mary Ruth McHenry was hiding under a desk and reading. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with learning to cook, clean and sew. It was just that Mary was perhaps more intellectually curious than her schoolmates. When she had children of her own, Mary was determined to see that they went to college, whatever the obstacles.