Fall 1991 Vol4 No 1
ISSN 1049-2259
DOROTHY .ANN MERENESS OCTOBER
31, 1910 - APRIL 20, 1991
Dorothy Ann Mereness' parents were aghast when they heard of her intentions to become a nurse. Her father, in particular, did not approve of the idea because be •• ...thought nurses knew too much about sex." Her mother also tried to dissuade her but for sounder reasons; she did not believe Dorothy's inquisitive nature would be satisfied in a profession that demanded unquestioning obedi ence. Dorothy's" . . .personaI Florence Nightingale ...," a nurse roommate of two years when Dorothy was a grade school teacher at Center Colorado and Las Animas, however, bad already inspired her to the point of no return. Under this nurse's guidance Dorothy set otT to Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University), one of two schools in the country that accepted college graduates in 1938. Not having carefully read Western's Bulletin, Dorothy was a bit surprised when she discovered that psychiatric nursing was part oftbe curriculum. After hearing" . . .horrendous stories about [the] terrible patients . .." nurses encountered, Dorothy decided that she could manage as they bad. Her interest in psychiatric nursing did not fully peak, however, until she attended the lectures of Louis 1. Kamosb, professor of Nervous Diseases at Western Reserve's Medical School and clinical director of the Psychiatric Division ofCleveJand City Hospital (now Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital). Dr. Kamosh's new textbook, Esselltials o/Psychiatn'c Nursing (now Mereness' Essentials o/Psychiatric Nursing), and Dorothy's six-week: psychiatric nursing experience solidified her interest in the field. From this point on, Dorothy's life included psychiatric nursing .
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Dorothy Ann Mereness lived to see many developmental changes in psychiatric nursing. As part of the nwsing educaDoro~hy at her desk. Cleveland City tionaJ leadership originally trained in psychiatric nursing HospItal c.a. 1945. dwiog the 1930s and 1940s Dorothy saw the government-funded growth of the country's psychiatric teams - psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric social workers, and psychiatric nurses - needed to cope with the large numbers of mentally ill soldiers who bad served in World Warn. She participated in and observed the development of a profession that began with nlJJSes with only six observation experience supervising World War II Army psychiatric hospitals. Dorothy also made some changes herself; she developed and directed a Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Curriculum at New York University (1955-1963) The because she believed that tbe nmse should have theoretical preparation equal to that of the physician. And, of course, Dorothy pioneered the transition that saw nurses become the lead authors of psychiatric texts. Dorothy Ann Mereness' death on April 20, 1991, is a deeply-felt loss to those who UNIVERSIl Y OF PENN YLVANIA knew her and to the innumerable students who have read and will read her textbook. SCHOOL OF NURSING We at the University of Pennsylvania School ofNwsing will greatly miss our second dean. Friends of Dean Mereness have been making conJributions in her memory to the Center. (For fwtber background on Dorothy Ann Mereness. please see " Recent Acquisitions" beginning on page 4.) Speciallhanks to Pat O'Brien D'Antonio 's 1985 oral history interview with Dorothy Mereness and 10 Dr. Neville Strnmp/
Center/or
Study of The Hi tory of Nur ing