Chapter 02: Discovering Nursing as a Desirable Career Path; One of a Few Male Nursing Students
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Identifier
BrewerCC_20061406_C02
Publication Date
6-14-2006
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS, Oral History Interview, June 14, 2006
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Educational Path; Evolution of Career; Military Experience; Inspirations to Practice Science/Medicine; Influences from People and Life Experiences; The History of Health Care, Patient Care; Experiences Related to Gender, Race, Ethnicity; Military Experience
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
Lesley W. Brunet:
What year did you graduate?
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
I graduated from high school in 1966. And after high school, my initial thoughts were to go to college and play basketball on a basketball scholarship. I was a pretty good, little old basketball player back then. And had quite a bit of respect in Dallas about that. I played -- I went to Bishop College initially. Bishop College is located in Dallas, Texas. It's no longer in existence. It was a small, Baptist college that was originally located in Marshall, Texas and moved to Dallas, Texas in like 1962.
Lesley W. Brunet:
That's why it sounds familiar.
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
And it was known for its production of Baptist preachers; the education of Baptist preachers. And you may have heard something called -- the most famous preachers that you may have heard of is called the Bishop Four. Those are some very -- they're very powerful preachers in today's world, and they have some of the largest congregations out here in the state, and also another one here in town is called Brook Hollow Baptist Church, which is Reverend…I'm going to brainstorm now…Rev. West, and another one was Frederick Haynes in Dallas. But they got some very -- but they were known as the Bishop Four because the four preachers who came out of the college and did well. But Bishop College was known for its Baptist association, and its production of, you know, the religious aspect. And because when you go to school there, everybody takes religion. You didn't have an option, you had to take religion. And played basketball there for a while, and decided no, that that really -- and I think I had an accounting major. I said, “No, that's not really where I am.” So here's where my beginning starts in health care. Like I told you, I've already -- I always worked from childhood to my adult life, and in college, obviously, you're going to have to -- if you -- if that's been your dependency, you continue it. So I continued my work ethic while in school after the basketball season was over, and I started to work in Parker Memorial Hospital in Dallas as an orderly. I got a job as an orderly. A friend of mine and I went to work -- we applied for a job there and we started working as orderlies. And I was a float orderly in the hospital, meaning that the order -- you would walk around the hospital and you would get called to different floors to do things, pick up things. Not necessarily direct patient care, but you know, maybe take a patient to the morgue, or empty linen, or do -- you know, handy type of work, orderly type of work; the traditional, orderly work. I worked in the admission department, you know, retrieving medical records, making name plates for patients, taking patients to floors, carrying patients you know, around. And that's where I got my very basic beginning in healthcare, and nursing was at Parkland Memorial Hospital in 1967. At that time, I was encouraged to pursue hospital nursing. I -- you know, at that time, I'd only -- my sister was an eld -- a licensed, practical nurse. And her -- she married a gentleman, and he was a licensed -- he became a licensed, practical nurse. So --
Lesley W. Brunet:
Do you want to define practical nurse for people who don't understand the --
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
Vocational nurse.
Lesley W. Brunet:
Vocation, OK.
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
The LP and LV are the same. It just depends -- a practical nurse or vocational nurse. I attended -- so that's the same. What happened to -- now I think there are some other definitions for practical -- how I got started early and it changed to vocational. I think initially, it was practical nurse when it began in the '50s or late -- post-war. But then they changed the name to vocational because vocational education. Cause when you went through the vocational educational school, you could take nursing or, I don’t know, carpentry, or mill work, or -- and vocational.
Lesley W. Brunet:
This is in high school?
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
No, this is post.
Lesley W. Brunet:
Post, OK.
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
This is post high school. So after getting the exposure to healthcare, and I liked it, and having to watch my -- being influenced by my brother-in-law and my sister who are practical nurses, and I think at that time from a nursing perspective, the person who had the most influence on my life as being a nurse was my brother-in-law. Because I saw him -- because I think his image that he presented. He presented a very positive male image. He had a very -- he looked real sharp everyday because in those days, if you were a nurse you had to wear all white: white shoes, white pants, white shirt or jacket. And you always had to look real slick when you went to work. It's not like it is today where you can just wear just about anything. But as a nurse then, you had to look the part. So -- and also the money that he was making at that time based on the community, and what I was exposed to was good. So I decided that I would pursue vocational nursing and so I -- so he had already completed his training of Dallas vocational nursing school. I decided that I would enter the Dallas vocational nursing school program. And I entered in '67, back in September of '67. I didn't go back to Bishop College, decided I would focus on nursing. But in between that I took -- had other odd jobs. I mean you would find crazy type of jobs there. I just took all types of jobs. I worked in a -- what they called a meat packing company where you slaughter cows, you know, beef. So I worked in a slaughterhouse there for -- during the summer -- and learned a lot about that business, the processing of beef and meat products and how it happens from the time the cow comes in alive, is slaughtered in a humane way and dressed out, cut up into pieces and go out to a market. So I know that pretty good too. I know quite well how that process works. BRUNET: Did you still want to eat meat after that?
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
Oh, yeah. What happened is that that was my support for going into nursing school, for making money. I would make one dollar an hour; that was the going rate at that time. And I was able to amass enough funds to support me in school and not have to worry too much about working. So I entered vocational school the only male in that classroom… [Break in audio file and transcript, switching audio cassettes]
Lesley W. Brunet:
You said you were--
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
I was the only male in a group of women in both my -- 50 in my class. And I was possibly -- what would I have been? 19 years old then? I was young, real young. Nineteen in school, back then, I was -- as a nurse, male nurse, was very much a rebel, a trailblazer because not only my brother-in-law was much older than, maybe 10 years older than me, but being 19 years old in nursing school or vocational, and most of the students in the vocational school were not the generic student out of high school and to vocational nursing. They were more the -- more mature nurse -- more mature people. I.E. maybe in their upper 20s and early 30s. And I was a 19 year old kid in school with all of these women who probably had about four or five blacks in the class. So…
Lesley W. Brunet:
And so it was integrated quite well?
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
So you get the picture, you know, mid -- 1967, during the civil rights, during the Vietnam War, and all the things just coming from the segregated society of born to Lincoln High School where the schools were segregated. You know, you only had as I said, four black schools. I never participated in intramural sports with a white school. Never, never, not high school. We didn't even come in contact with white students when I was in high school. We never thought about it because, you know, you were in your community and you never -- you know, and then you left your community. You know, you go to work, and the other side of town -- we called it the other side of town on the -- where -- you know, in the white area. But you know, I never thought much about you know, that type of integration. So we were all -- we used to be associated with my black colleagues at other black high schools, and sports, and academics, and social activities. And then on the first real exposure to an integrated environment was when I attended the Dallas Vocational Nursing School because I had never gone to a class or anything like that on an educational basis where there were none black. And I finished my course work. I was the president of the class, did most of my my clinical work at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, a large medical center in Dallas; Baylor Medical Center. In those days, they really encouraged the male nurses to focus on orthopedic -- things that they considered to be more manly, more masculine type of environments. And it's kind of funny now, but that's how they kind of gathered the male nurses to go into orthopedics because you're dealing with bones, and a lot of heavy lifting, and things like that. And a lot of physical things like applying casts and things of that sort -- of that nature. Or urology, where you're working with men who are having gastro urinary issues. And so you were kind of guided in those directions for your exposure. And I have some articles from back then where the instructors thought that maybe that will be my niche in nursing would be something of that nature, but she thought that whatever I did would be -- I would do well in it. That was what she quoted in the Baylor hospital’s newsletter. And I finished up my nursing school there, but in doing that -- as I approached the end of my practical education in the vocation nursing, I was further encouraged to pursue a higher degree; a bachelor of art degree. And before I finished my LVN training, and having you know, being associated with Baylor Medical Center, Parkland Hospital, St. Paul's Hospital, Methodist Hospital in Dallas and several other smaller hospitals around town doing my training, I never saw any male nurses; male RNs. So I remember I -- in Dallas, Texas there were about four or five black, male LVNs that I knew about. That we all kind of went to the same school and we knew each other. They were much older than I. And -- but I heard about male RNs, and they were white, but I never had an association with them. And so and they were white -- they were white LVNs men, but black there were very few. So I took the big leap, and took the big chance because the stigma associated with male nurses back then was tremendous. You know, you either had to be gay, or not capable of certain things, or a mama's boy. Or all those things -- all those --
Lesley W. Brunet:
I didn't think of that.
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
All of those things are traditional in the way the stigma was attached to male nurses, oh yeah.
Lesley W. Brunet:
I didn't realize there was a stigma. I guess I…
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
In the male -- in the black--
Lesley W. Brunet:
Just thought it was uncommon, but it -- I never -- I'm glad you've mentioned this.
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
And -- yeah, most of the men that you have -- which you probably saw back then…they thought nursing was a female profession. It was a primary female profession; it still is. Cause less than what? 6-7% of the nurses are men. And they -- so if you were in a primary female profession, then you -- also that in the little circle that I ran around in it, saying you must be more of a female than a male. And so you took a lot of -- I took a lot of heat behind that because they -- you know, you were coming from a very masculine type of environment where you were a basketball player and always a jock, and all of a sudden you switch to a female dominated profession, what's wrong with you, you know? Anyway, so that…
Lesley W. Brunet:
You would make more money as an RN than an LV wouldn’t you?
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
Yeah. Having, you know, gone through the stigma side of it, you know, even to go from being an LV and not to an RN, the stigma even gets greater because it's my God, you're really into this stuff, you know, you really want to be this. So I pursued -- I decided I'd pursue -- if I could get into a program, a baccalaureate program. Back then, they had diploma programs. Associate degree programs were just coming on to come into being in the '60s. They flourished in the '70s and the '80s, but back in the '60s, your primary schools were either diploma programs; three year program for becoming a registered nurse, hospital based programs.
Lesley W. Brunet:
I'm familiar with the Hermann's nursing program.
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
Yeah, Hermann's was here in Houston. Lots of programs throughout the state, and then the baccalaureate programs at you know, Texas Woman’s University in Denton, here in Houston. Baylor has a nursing program in Dallas and also in Waco. That's why I know about Dallas baccalaureate program. And then outside of there, I started to pursue what I thought might be a way to get in the nursing school because they weren't admitting men into nursing programs back then, especially black men.
Lesley W. Brunet:
There weren't any then?
Cecil C. Brewer, RN, BSN, MS:
Oh, no. Not Texas Woman’s University back in the '60s? No, no. And they didn't even allow blacks into the University of Texas until an agreement with them, and [Heman Sweatt??] the first one in the '50s. But the number of blacks being admitted into the universities, the large university like University of Texas, I think was very small. Especially just to get one of those prized positions to be in the nursing school. So I went to -- I tried a couple, but I ended up -- I came to Prairie View, and applied at Prairie View, drove down with a couple friends of mine and talked with the Dean. And she had just begun to admit -- allow men to enroll into her nursing program. And so she gave me the opportunity to enroll into the pre-nursing program. In my pre-nursing program at Prairie View, so I graduated from the vocational school in -- like in August, the last of August, and I headed out to Prairie View in September.
Lesley W. Brunet:
And so this is '68? Is this 1968?
Recommended Citation
Brewer, Cecil C. RN, BSN, MS and Brunet, Lesley W., "Chapter 02: Discovering Nursing as a Desirable Career Path; One of a Few Male Nursing Students" (2006). Interview Chapters. 898.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/898
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