Elsie M Szecsy, Ed.D.

I owe my successes in life to my mom, who was a U.S. Cadet Nurse. She started nursing school in 1943 at the Westchester School of Nursing at Grasslands Hospital in Valhalla, New York. Though the school no longer exists, the hospital is now known as the Westchester County Medical Center. Mom worked at Grasslands Hospital until about 1948 and continued at Queens General Hospital in New York City as a newlywed when she and my father moved to Queens. My father worked as an industrial nurse for Pan American World Airways there. He finished the same nursing school as my mother, but earlier, so he was not a Cadet Nurse. Mom died in 2005.

 

Mom was proud of her nurse's training and her service to the country, not only as a nurse, but also as a parent to me and my brother. It is too late to tell my mother personally how much I have come to appreciate her even more, but it is not too late to seek recognition for her and all U.S. Cadet Nurses' service. Unfortunately, it took me this long to learn about my mother's contributions to improving nursing education through this program. Steps taken over the years have increased public awareness  of Cadet Nurses and the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps program. Their legacy continues to be felt nationally in the nursing profession and among generations of men and women who have been under their care during and since World War II.

 

After 14 years' service as a researcher at Arizona State University, first in education and more recently in the liberal arts, I am moving on as Academic Professional Emerita so that I can place activities that had been at the edge of my life into the center. Learning about, from, and with Cadet Nurses is my number one priority, and communicating this history to others is my retirement project.