Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 12:00 AM

Nurse retires after 40-year career at Boaz hospital

Tami Howard has witnessed a lot and experienced even more during the past 41 years she has worked at Marshall Medical South. She started when the hospital had only two floors and no computers. She helped convert the hospital from paper to electronic medical records in the 1990s and more recently helped steer it through a complicated conversion that replaced the aging system. That task, which took a year of preparation and training, turned out to be her final accomplishment. She is hanging up her scrubs and going home for good.

“I hope I’ve made a difference in patients’ lives,” she says. “There were times it was hard and challenging. Doing new things is scary. You just make sure you’re well informed. It’s been hard but it’s been fun. I’ve met a lot of wonderful people. It’s been very rewarding.”

Tami graduated in the Holy Name of Jesus Hospital School of Nursing class of 1984. Her graduation photo illustrates how drastically different nurses dressed then than the more casual, colorful look they sport today.

“We did not wear pants,” she recalls. “We wore white dresses, white hose and white shoes. That is what I looked like every day when I came to work. I started wearing white scrubs with my cap in maybe 1986-87 with the white pantyhose and white nursing shoes. I abandoned the cap probably 1987-88. We did not change to colored scrubs until maybe 1990.”

After graduating in 1980 from Albertville High School, Tami attended one year of Snead before enrolling at Holy Name in Gadsden. She chose it based on its reputation for producing excellent nurses.

“I had a good education,” she says. “We started out with 32 students and by the end there were only 12 of us that graduated. It was a very tough school. The sisters were very regimented and disciplined. They had a very high standard for grades. You were expected to make A’s and B's. If you made a C they would get someone to tutor you to bring the grade up. Sadly if you didn't bring the grade up you were no longer in the program.”

Those white caps and polished shoes were not what she dreamed of as a little girl. Instead, Tami wanted to be a teacher, lining up her dolls as students. An aunt who was an RN influenced her toward a career in healthcare. Ironically, she has spent the past three decades serving as education director where she trains nurses, teaches classes and conducts orientation for new hires in her own classroom.

“I got the best of both worlds,” she says, flashing her big smile and bright eyes.

When the position was offered to her, Tami was hesitant to take it because she loved doing direct patient care. The education role, however, turned out to be a perfect fit.

Tami has watched her beloved hospital evolve from a 2-story brick hospital to a modern, sprawling 150-bed facility treating more than 25 specialties. When she started in 1984, the first floor consisted of an OR, lab, cafeteria, X-ray department and a 4-bed ER. Upstairs was the ICU, OB, med surg or acute care departments. She started out doing acute care nursing then transferred to the ICU, which consisted of four beds separated by curtains. A tiny desk served as the nurse’s station. A cord hung from the ceiling to pull in case of emergency, ringing a bell at the second-floor nurses’ station to enlist help.

“We’ve grown so much,” she says, seeing the years pass by in her memories.

Marshall South opened in 1956 as the Boaz-Albertville Hospital with 35 beds and 35 employees. Today, as it turns 70 years old, it has 150 beds with 975 employees. More than 40,000 patients are treated in the Level III Emergency Department each year. Marshall Medical Centers is now part of the Huntsville Hospital Health System.

She marked many firsts in her four-decade career. With the advent of day surgery, outpatient services/pre-admission testing was added and Tami worked in that department too. She assisted with the first Persantin thallium scan - a non-gated cardiac nuclear stress test where she administered the Persantin and monitored the patient throughout the stress test.

Tami was called on to do patient education, employee health, she became chemotherapy certified and I was one of only two nurses in the hospital that could administer chemotherapy in the first chemo clinic. She taught the first advanced life support class. She even arranged women’s day out programs for the community with health information, fashion shows, pediatrics, wellness and beauty.

With plans for lots of travel and crafting and fun with friends, Tami doesn’t plan to disappear from the hospital. She is a big supporter of the hospital gift shop and the fundraisers sponsored by the Auxiliary so she expects to be a frequent visitor.

At home, she’ll be kept company by her cat, one of many she has loved during her life. She stays in touch with friends from high school and helps plan reunions. She has many work friends with whom she wants to stay in touch.

“I’ve made a lot of lifelong friendships,” she says. “I love this hospital. I’m proud to have worked here. It’s been a great career.”