Eula McCall, R.N., left, and Marilyn Dubree, M.S.N., R.N., at the party celebrating McCall’s career at Vanderbilt. (photo by Anne Rayner)
McCall’s 46 years of nursing service celebrated
After 46 years as a Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurse, many would think Eula McCall, R.N., had experienced just about everything. A retirement party in her honor, however, was something completely new.
Former colleagues, friends, physicians and hospital executives recently gathered to celebrate McCall's contributions and career as one of the longest-serving nurses in the organization's history.
“It is simply incredible to think of all the patients that Eula has helped and all the nurses she has mentored during her career,” said Marilyn Dubree, M.S.N., R.N., VUMC's executive chief nursing officer. “She has participated in the rise of the professional practice of nursing at the Medical Center. So much so, we included her personal observations in a portion of the Magnet document we submitted this fall.”
McCall started in the Certified Nursing Technician program in 1964 and has served in many roles and in many different areas of the Medical Center. She worked in Gynecology and General Surgery in the late 1960s and 1970s as a direct care and then medication nurse.
She worked in Gynecology, Ophthalmology, Plastic Surgery, Urology and Vascular Surgery Unit in the 1980s, where she became assistant manager.
In the mid-1990s, McCall helped open the Sub-Acute Care Unit and served as acting director. For the past 10 years, she has worked in the Orthopedics/Urology Unit located in Medical Center North.
She might not need nurse’s scrubs any more, but she will still need some comfortable shoes. McCall plans to spend her retirement traveling. She has already driven through 43 states, gone to five World's Fairs and visited several countries. Her next trip is to Costa Rica in January 2011.
No matter where her travels take her, she has made a profound impact at Vanderbilt. As Lucinda Willis, a clinical technician, said, “Eula, you are truly an inspiration to us all.”