Interview with Mitzi Duxbury

Abstract

Mitzi Duxbury begins by describing her background, including her education and why she went into nursing. She discusses her experiences as a nursing diploma student; working at Cook County Hospital as a diploma student; and working as a nurse at Fort Riley Hospital in Kansas and at the Washington, D.C. General Hospital. She also describes her experiences as a baccalaureate student at the University of Wisconsin, working at the March of Dimes; and as assistant dean for graduate students at the University of Minnesota. She describes her graduate work; relations between nurses and doctors in the different hospitals in which she worked; the techniques and technologies she worked with as a nurse; developing contracts with North Dakota University for the UMN School of Nursing; the building of Unit F; lobbying for the School of Nursing budget at the state Legislature; and working with the World Health Organization. She discusses midwifery as a nursing specialty; nursing autonomy; the efforts to establish a Ph.D. program in nursing at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing; faculty research and funding; and the Committee for Long Range Planning for the School of Nursing. She also discusses how gender affected her career, and the health care systems of different countries. She talks about Irene Ramey, Ellen Fahey, Lyle French, and other School of Nursing faculty.