Ask her about working on behalf of her staff and patients and Jean Owens, former director of nursing, breaks into a smile.

     "I guess I stayed in trouble," she says, laughing as she remembers helping refine nurses' duties to focus more on patient care. Prior to her tenure, nurses spent much of their time retrieving medications and equipment, transporting patients to therapy and other non-clinical responsibilities.She felt they needed to be more focused on direct patient care.
Her fondest memory is of the April 1977 move to the new hosptial - especially moving the newborns.

     "There were a bunch of student nurses called 'bluebirds' who came out and every one of them had a baby in her arms," she recalls. "We didn't move them in cribs. They were all carried over. The students enjoyed it and we enjoyed it."

Jean Owens