When Bettie Jean Howard received her nursing certificate, President Harry S. Truman was establishing the American Cold War policy of containment. The Marshall Plan was announced that year to assist European economic recovery after World War II.
Howard remembered the shadow war cast on her education at the Church Home and Hospital just north of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes.
“When the nurses graduated, they went off to war. We students really ran the hospitals then,” Howard said.
During the next 60 years, she witnessed the first use of flexible endoscopes, eliminating hundreds of puncture wounds.
“We were used to working with rigid instruments but here were these flexible things,” Howard said. “I thought that they had to be properly disinfected between every patient, but didn?t know how to do that.” She developed a procedure of immersing the long scope in glutaraldehyde, then wiping the sensitive electronic instrument head with alcohol.
Later, she joined the new Society for Gastroenterology Assistants. She rose to lead the organization, changing the name to the Society for Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates.
Today, two weeks shy of her 81st birthday, Howard is working her last day at the University of Maryland Medical Center after 41 years. She retired to work more closely with the society, editing its newsletter.
“I get to work from home, but travel to all their events in Europe,” she said, a twinkle in her blue eyes.
She was honored for her service Monday at a medical center ceremony.
“I love what I do, and it?s exciting,” Howard said. “It?s a challenge and I learned that I myself can make a difference to the patients. I can be a good patient advocate.”
The emotional drama has helped Howard remain passionate about work. “When you?re a nurse, you cry a lot and you laugh a lot. You learn what it is to be humane. You get very involved with your patients,” she said.
Staying on top of developments made Howard an indispensable expert.
“We call her the scope guru,” said Julie Ray, director of nursing and perioperative services. “She was very compassionate in terms of patient care and very passionate about how the use of endoscopes at the right time can affect patient outcomes.”
