Marie Manthey, MS, Ph.D. (Hon.) Narrator

Marie Manthey, MS, Ph.D. (hon.) Narrator Dominique A. Tobbell, Ph.D. Interviewer ACADEMIC HEALTH CENTER ORAL HISTORY PROJECT UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ACADEMIC HEALTH CENTER ORAL HISTORY PROJECT In 1970, the University of Minnesota’s previously autonomous College of Pharmacy and School of Dentistry were reorganized, together with the Schools of Nursing, Medicine, and Public Health, and the University Hospitals, into a centrally organized and administered Academic Health Center (AHC). The university’s College of Veterinary Medicine was also closely aligned with the AHC at this time, becoming formally incorporated into the AHC in 1985. The development of the AHC made possible the coordination and integration of the education and training of the health care professions and was part of a national trend which saw academic health centers emerge as the dominant institution in American health care in the last third of the 20th century. AHCs became not only the primary sites of health care education, but also critical sites of health sciences research and health care delivery. The University of Minnesota’s Academic Health Center Oral History Project preserves the personal stories of key individuals who were involved with the formation of the university’s Academic Health Center, served in leadership roles, or have specific insights into the institution’s history. By bringing together a representative group of figures in the history of the University of Minnesota’s AHC, this project provides compelling documentation of recent developments in the history of American health care education, practice, and policy. 2 Biographical Sketch Marie Manthey was born and raised in Chicago Illinois. In 1956, she earned her nursing diploma from Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital in Chicago. Manthey went on to receive her B.S. in nursing (1961) and M.S. in nursing (1964) from the University of Minnesota. She served as associate director of nursing at the University of Minnesota Hospital (1964-1971), as assistant administrator and director of nursing at United Hospitals of St. Paul (during the 1970s), and the vice president of patient services at Yale New Haven Hospital. During her tenure at the University of Minnesota Hospital, Manthey led the development of primary nursing and is recognized, nationally and internationally, as the founder of primary nursing. In 1979, Manthey founded Creative Health Care Management, a consulting firm specializing in the organization and delivery of health care services. Interview Abstract In the first interview, Manthey begins by discussing her childhood and her decision to become a nurse. She describes her initial nursing training and work at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital and the University of Chicago Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. She discusses her decision to come to the University of Minnesota to continue her education in the early 1960s, and describes her experiences with individuals such as Katherine Densford, Edna Fritz, and John Westerman. She describes working on Station 32 with Dr. Owen Wangensteen, the shifting roles of Registered Nurses [RN] and Licensed Practical Nurses [LPN], and relationships between nurses with different levels of education. She discusses her time as Associate Director of Nursing at the University Hospital and the work that led to the establishment of primary nursing. Manthey describes the changes in accounting systems in the hospital as well as the restructuring of the University’s Academic Health Center. In the second interview, Manthey continues to discuss her time at the University Hospital. She also describes her experiences serving as assistant administrator and director of nursing at Miller Hospital in St. Paul (later renamed United Hospital). She discusses her experiences with Ray Amberg, various hospital administrations, and nursing unions. She discusses the culture of the University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing, and the relationships between the faculty and the Hospital’s nursing service during the 1960s and 1970s. Manthey also discusses the changes in undergraduate and graduate nursing education introduced at the University of Minnesota during these decades. She discusses her tenure on the Hospital Board of Governors and explains her decision to leave Minnesota and move to Yale New Haven Hospital in the late 1970s. She describes the differences she sees between nursing and medical care in Minnesota compared to other locations in the United States and abroad. She discusses her company, Creative Health Care Management and developing the Leadership for Empowered Organizations (LEO) program. 3 Interview with Marie Manthey Interviewed by Dominique Tobbell, Oral Historian Interviewed for the Academic Health Center, University of Minnesota Oral History Project Interviewed at the Office of Dominique Tobbell Interviewed on October 12, 2010 Marie Manthey - MM Dominique Tobbell - DT DT: I’ll introduce us. This is Dominique Tobbell, and I’m here with Marie Manthey. It’s October 12, 2010. We’re meeting in my office at 510-A Diehl Hall [University of Minnesota campus]. Thank you, Marie, for joining me today. To get us started, can you tell me a bit about your background, such as where you were born and raised and how you got into nursing? MM: I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. I was born in a middle class neighborhood. My father is one hundred percent German. My mother is one hundred percent Irish. Nobody had ever gone to college nor had any kind of higher education. When I was five years old, I was sick in the hospital. It was a negative experience for many different reasons, one of them being that my parents knew nothing about hospitals, so they really couldn’t tell me what was going to happen. They just told me I was going to a big building. They didn’t tell me that I’d stay there, because they didn’t know I was going to be admitted. So I couldn’t understand why they left me there and, then, according to the rules for visiting children in hospitals in those years, only one parent could come for one hour twice a week. I didn’t understand why they didn’t come and see me and, then, when they did come, a very painful procedure was done. Those things I know to be true. Now, what else was happening and so on, what other feelings I may have had, I don’t know, but those things I know. In the midst of that, the other thing I know is that there was a nurse by the name of Florence Marie Fisher, and she colored in my coloring book. Now, I have no idea what else she did or didn’t do and whether she was a good nurse or a bad nurse, but the fact that she colored in my coloring book meant that she really cared for me, in my mind, the way it felt, because it was an act of extremely precious caring. I just very quickly decided that’s what I wanted my life to be about. From practically then on, as early as I can ever remember, anytime anybody said to me, “What are you going to be when you grow up, Marie?” “I’m going to be a nurse like Florence Marie Fisher.” “I’m going to be a nurse like Florence Marie Fisher.” It was a 4 mantra. Florence Marie Fisher was in here. I never saw her again, and we never had any more contacts. I became a nurse like Florence Marie Fisher and, as I look at my career, I can see that feeling of being cared for was really a driving force throughout my whole career. It’s why I stayed with primary nursing. It’s why I built the company that I built. It really accounts, in my own mind, for so much of what I’ve been able to accomplish. She colored in my coloring book. I had the pleasure of finding her son. The rest of the story goes like this. In 1980 when my book was published, the publisher, [unclear] Scientific, decided to try and find her because I dedicated the book to her, The Practice of Primary Nursing. So they wrote a letter to the Illinois State Board of Nursing and found out she got married and lived in Indiana. They wrote a letter to the Indiana State Board of Nursing, and they couldn’t find her. A couple of years ago, when I was getting my papers ready for the archives, I came across those two onion skin copies of the letters that the publishers wrote to the boards. I looked at my home computer, and I looked at the letters, and I said, “Humph! I’m going to google her.” So I googled “Florence Marie Fisher.” I felt very outrageous in doing that. I just thought, oh, my god, this is just crazy to google Florence. She’s always been right here. She’s always been a big part of my life, and, yet, it’s been on the inside, and to think about googling her brought her out in way that I felt was totally outrageous. Anyway, I got her obituary, which was both the good news and the bad news. I mean, oh, my gosh, there she is. Oh, my gosh, she’s dead. It had a survivor. So, I paid $7.95 and got the phone number for the survivor, and I started calling him. He didn’t answer all afternoon and a couple times in the… At seven o’clock, he answered. I said, “Is this so and so?” He said, “Yes, it is.” I said, “Well, I don’t know how to tell you why I’m calling you, but let me start off with my name is Marie Manthey. Before I get into anything, I’ve got to ask you, did you have a relative named Florence Marie Fisher?” He said, “That was my mother.” I’ll tell you, Dominique, it was like an electric current went through me.

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