SEVERAL SCHOOL OF NURSING ALUMNI HAVE OPTED FOR LAW CAREERS. SOME COMBINED NURSING AND LAW, BUT FOR MANY BECOMING AN ATTORNEY WAS A CHANGE FROM THEIR FIRST CAREER CHOICE.

According to nurse historian Laurie Glass, Ph.D., (B.S.'71), the first nurse attorney was Mary Eleanor McGarvah (1886-1979), who received a bachelor of law degree in 1929 from the University of Detroit. She was a 1911 graduate of the Farrand Training School for Nurses at Harper Hospital, Detroit.

The first UW-Madison alumnus to receive a law degree was Edith Duenk Volterra (B.S.'42). She majored in sociology before nursing majors were established. She wanted to go to medical school, but financial aid was not available. After working at Wisconsin General Hospital, she served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in the Mariana Islands and Tokyo from 1944 to 1946.

She was then employed by the UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) in the British Zone in Germany, working with displaced persons. Next she was offered a position with the United Nations, but instead attended the University of Michigan Law School, receiving her J.D. in 1950.

She married Enrico Volterra, a professor of engineering and for the next several years raised two daughters. After her family moved to Austin, Texas, she worked at the University of Texas-Austin. For seventeen years in Texas, she taught government and history. She is now retired and lives in Austin.

She notes, "Looking back over my zigzag `careers'...there were frustrations and disappointments along the way. Now, decades later, doors are more readily open for women and great changes have occurred. Some painful employment discriminations would probably be seldom experienced today."

Alumni with law degrees are often recruited as faculty members of Schools of Nursing.

Maureen Molony (M.S.'76, JD'81) has been a lecturer in the School of Nursing for a number of years. Her knowledge of the law contributes to students' understanding of legal aspects of nursing.

Diane Kjervik, Ph.D., (B.S.'67) FAAN is currently a professor of nursing at the University of Texas-Austin School of Nursing. Prior to that she served as associate professor and director of graduate studies at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, and affiliate faculty member with that University's Center for Advanced Feminist Studies. From 1984-86, she was director of government relations and associate director of research for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. She has served as a staff nurse, charge nurse and as an instructor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, Baltimore.

A graduate of the William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, Kjervik was admitted to the Minnesota Bar in 1983. Her research is in the area of psychiatric nursing and legal implications of nursing practice. She has authored two books: Women in Stress (1979) and Women in Health and Illness (1987). She is Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Nursing Law, and on the board of directors of the American Association of Nurse Attorneys. She was awarded the NAO's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1989.

Ellen VanderVelden Murphy (B.S.'69, J.D.'80) FAAN is a professor at the School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she has been since 1980. In her position she teaches legal, ethical and political strands of the undergraduate curriculum, nursing science, and public policy, and administers graduate programs.

An experienced operating room nurse, she was a clinical nurse specialist in charge of the operating room at University Hospitals before enrolling in law school. She currently serves as president of the National Association of Operating Room Nurses. In 1989 she was named Political Nurse of the Year by the Wisconsin Nurses Political Action Committee. She was awarded a red ribbon for a videotape she co-produced on "Everyday Use of Politics in Nursing."

A staff attorney, Connie Deer (B.S.'71, J.D.'79) assists low income clients with legal matters. She currently focuses on landlord tenant issues, but in the past has also included family law, consumer, welfare, disability, and unemployment compensation issues.

Linda Gobis (B.S.'72, J.D.'89) is an associate in a law firm. She works on medical and dental malpractice cases, both plaintiff and defense, and does personal injury defense for large businesses.

Patricia Honish Chritton (B.S.'76, J.D.'85) is director of risk management, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where she administers the College's self-insurance program. She monitors medical liability and risk management-related legislative and regulatory initiatives, and informs both physicians and the College's Administration about current initiative developments and their potential impact. She acts as a resource for physicians and supervises two other nurse attorneys.

An administrative law judge, Laura Nick (B.S.'76, J.D.'84) is employed by the Wisconsin Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations. In this position she holds unemployment compensation benefit hearings and employer tax cases and issues written decisions. Occasionally, she is required to hold hearings involving other issues, such as disaster relief benefits and environmental clean up costs involving gas tank removal.

Reasons for Choosing Law

Motivation for nurses enrolling in law school varies. Several have had a long-standing interest in law. Ellen Murphy noted that she was interested in law from the time she was in high school, but few women became attorneys at that time. She observes, "If law school had been more of an option for me out of high school, I think I could have skipped the B.S. and M.S. in nursing and been quite happy as an attorney." Nonetheless, nursing has been a rewarding career for her.

Laura Nick always was interested in becoming an attorney, but at the time did not think she could finance the education costs. She disliked the "stigma" of being a member of a female dominated profession and feels that nurses are severely underpaid.

Others' motivations reflected their concern for making a significant contribution to the people they serve. Diane Kjervik was concerned about the rights of the mentally ill and the authority of master's prepared nurses under the law. Her goal was to increase patient's rights and nurses' authority for mental health treatment. In a similar vein, Connie Deer gets a great deal of satisfaction being able to do something about some of the daily injustices of life.

Patricia Chritton wanted autonomy and challenge in her work, and strongly considered getting a master's degree in geriatric nursing, but her friends with advanced preparation were struggling to find employment. She felt a law degree would allow her to continue to be service oriented.

Advantages

Most of the nurse attorneys in this group found definite advantages in their practice to being a nurse, and if they had it to do over, would become a nurse before enrolling in law school. Many observed that they use their nursing knowledge on a daily basis. Diane Kjervik says, "For my work, I must be a nurse." Ellen Murphy notes that it's critical that she be a nurse: "my primary identity is as a nurse."

Patricia Chritton writes, "I need to be able to read medical records, ask the right questions of both physicians and other attorneys in the course of claims investigation and management, and to apply nursing-related knowledge to the quality assurance/improvement aspects of my position.

Satisfaction

These alumni get considerable satisfaction in their work, meeting daily challenges, interacting with students and clients, guiding aspiring nurse attorneys and serving as mentors.

Perhaps Patricia Chritton said it best, "I like the same thing about this position that I liked in my nursing position: the opportunity to listen to a patient, physician or fellow employee as they explain their needs, concerns and goals, and the satisfaction of helping resolve problems through explanations, further research, and educational presentations. Empathy is a key aspect in the fields of nursing and law."

Linda Gobis finds it satisfying to identify and analyze both medical and legal issues in the cases she handles. She notes, "As a result, I can handle much more complex cases than a typical attorney with five years experience."

The authority to make decisions without consulting anyone--only the statutes--gives Laura Nick her greatest satisfaction. "I really feel that attorneys practice as independent professionals. I never actually felt that in nursing. We expend so much energy in nursing trying to define ourselves as an independent profession. It's exhausting--I don't have to deal with that in the legal profession."

Among this group, Laura Nick is the only one who left nursing behind, as she began a new career in law. She felt overworked as a staff nurse, having only enough time to "push pills and do treatments." She tried unsuccessfully to find her niche in nursing; she attended graduate school, but found it very difficult to be a nurse educator. She believes that "the health care system is not conducive to the practice of professional nursing, although we are making progress at the advanced degree level."

For most of these alumni, the combination of nursing and law has made for interesting and challenging careers. In addition to those alumni included here, several others are law school graduates and are currently practicing law.n

References: Glass, Laurie K. "Mary Eleanor McGarvah" in Bullough, Vern, et al, American Nursing: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume II. New York: Garland Publishing, 1992.

The author thanks those who responded to her request for information.

-Signe S. Cooper, Cert.'43, B.S.'48