April 7, 2017
Many things run in families – hair color, height, dimples and freckles – but in one Arab family, it seems that list also includes nursing.
Nilda Stricklin is retired from a 46-year career that began at Arab Hospital, where she earned a scholarship to nursing school. Her sister, Lisa Wilks, also attended nursing school on a scholarship from the hospital. Stricklin’s daughter, Jamie Kelly, didn’t consider any career path other than the one she saw growing up. She recalls playing on wheelchairs in the old hospital while her mother cared for patients. The three even worked together for a time at Golden Living skilled nursing facility.
“You can tell we’ve had a ball in our nursing careers,” Stricklin said, telling stories and laughing with her sister and daughter. “It’s been fascinating.”
As a high school student in 1968-69, Stricklin worked half-days as a nursing assistant and during the summer after graduating. Her scholarship took her to nursing school in Gadsden, where she he had a lot to learn, she recalled.
“I didn’t even know you had to take a state board to be a nurse.”
Stricklin remembered just how strict the nuns were on their students at the Holy Name of Jesus nursing school. Every morning students were lined up for inspection to make sure their white shoes had no scuffs, their white stockings had no runs, their white uniform was pressed and their white caps were starched enough to stand up stiffly.
“We had to make sure everything was perfect,” she said. “They were very strict, but they were good.”
When Stricklin joined the small Arab Hospital staff, she learned that nurses did anything that needed to be done. They might be stationed in labor and delivery, but also help out in the emergency room. There was no staff doctor at the time. Instead, nurses assessed patients then phoned doctors in their offices or at home during the night. The doctor might then head to the hospital or just tell the nurse what to do for the patient.
“We just worked where we were needed,” Stricklin remembered. “We had a good time, but we were very professional.”
Wilks said she was off to nursing school at Wallace State within hours of graduating high school.
“I knew nothing else,” she said.
In 1982 she went to work at Arab Hospital as a nursing assistant. After graduating the following year, she was a nurse working alongside her sister.
“We did everything,” Wilks remembered.
The sisters recall re-packaging and re-sterilizing gloves, sterilizing glass specimen jars, washing then spinning glass thermometers to get the mercury down.
“Nothing was disposable back then.”
Wilks eventually went to work as an RN at the Guntersville Hospital. Nurses were expected to mix medicine, hook up traction and do breathing treatments. She was taught how to draw arterial blood gases by a respiratory therapist who didn’t want to be called in at all hours.
The sisters worked together once again when both hospitals closed and combined in 1990 into the new Guntersville-Arab Medical Center, now Marshall Medical Center North.
Stricklin was education director in the new hospital and eventually was in charge of infection control, earning her certification in Baltimore, Md. Wilks started on the second floor in medical-surgical nursing or ‘Med-Surg’ and pediatrics. She earned a Med-Surg certification in Chicago.
In 2007 Stricklin retired. Four days later she went to work for Golden Living. She retired again last fall, saying it’s for good this time.
“I do love nursing,” she said. “I’ve had a good career and I’ve worked with fantastic people. I’m thrilled that I had the opportunity to work here rather than driving to Huntsville or somewhere else.”
Some of the sisters’ dearest memories come from emergencies when the staff had to go the extra mile. They recalled staying at Marshall North for “days and days” after a tornado and during an ice storm that crippled the area.
“The comradery was just incredible,” Wilks said.
A bomb threat illustrated how close the sisters were and how protective they felt about each other. During evacuation, Wilks insisted on staying with her patients, so her sister stayed too.
“It was the right thing to do,” Wilks said.
She left the hospital in 2000. Acute care was all she had known so she decided to try long-term care at Golden Living in Arab. Now she works part-time for the state health department doing health screenings.
Wilks’ niece followed in her footsteps to Wallace State where she graduated as a nurse in 2008. Kelly first went to work at Marshall North.
“Those two were already gone by the time I got there,” she remembered.
After a couple of years of working nights, Kelly left the hospital to practice long-term care at Golden Living with her mom and aunt. Professionalism was always top priority for the family so she referred to her co-workers as Mrs. Stricklin and Mrs. Wilks.
“People there didn’t even know we were related,” she remembered.
Kelly has no doubt that she followed her family members into the perfect career.
“I love what I do now,” she said. “I also do education. I still use all those skills today that I learned then. I love it. It’s still fun.”
The family learned firsthand that Marshall North is not only a good place to work, but also a great hospital after Wilks had a health scare in 2015. The outstanding care she received reinforced the devotion the family already had for the staff and facility.
“The experience was unbelievable,” she said. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
“We have a great staff here and great physicians,” Stricklin added. “We always have.”
And, of course, it feels like family.
“We’ve grown up with a lot of them,” Wilks said.