This is a recording of the oral history of Slyvia Barker, MA, RN, CNNA conducted by Richard Steele, in a series of five visits, spanning from November 8th, 1995 to December 19th, 1995.
Tape 1 discusses Ms. Barker’s background and the beginning of her 60-year career at Mount Sinai, including her hometown, her first days at the School of Nursing, and what her friends would do for fun in their free hours. She shared anecdotes about doctors, as well as the two Heads of Nursing Miss Greener and Miss Warman. She goes on to describe how she became Head Nurse of Ward U and an instructor at the School of Nursing, and also discusses her two-year stint at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago.
In Tape 2, she comments on the significance of nursing residences in creating a community for nurses. She talks about her close friend Blanche Gubersky; the demographics of the community Mount Sinai served in the 1940s; the courses and programs of the time; Mrs. Cynthia Kinsella and the closure of the Nursing School. She goes on to discuss risk management, personnel management, her relationship with Gail Weissman, and the unionization of Mount Sinai Hospital through Local 1199 and the State Nurses Association.
In Tape 3, Ms. Barker outlines the milestones in Gail Weissman’s tenure and the Alumni Association including its bookkeeper, “The Oaks” (the nurses’ residence in New Rochelle, New York) and their relationship to the Archives at Mount Sinai.
In Tape 4, she discusses the changes she has observed in nursing practices at Mount Sinai including: length of stay; technologies in nurseries; stethoscopes; intra-muscular injections; administration of oxygen; nurse practitioners; diagnostic procedures; procedure books and manuals; teaching techniques in nursing education; and resurgences of historical remedies.
In tape 5, she talks about Drs. A. A. Berg, Bela Shick, and Richard Lewisohn; group nursing; semi-private and private care; Jack Martin Poliorespirator Center and Dr. Horace Hodes; changes in the workday and work schedules; and finally, changes in staff demographics, including men in nursing and the first Black nurses at Mount Sinai.