Remembering Judith C. Kelleher, 1923-2013
Remembering Judith C. Kelleher
In Judy’s Words
I
n a 1995 video interview conducted for
ENA’s 25th anniversary, co-founder Judith C.
Kelleher, MSN, RN, CEN, FAEN, who died
Jan. 24 at age 89, shared her thoughts on the
start of the organization and how far it has come.
Looking back over the year you were president
(1973-74), what stands out the most?
The thing that stands out the most for me was helping to
get the organization going. We had very little money. Our
dues were $5 a year, and we wanted to get educational
programs going, we wanted to communicate better, we
wanted to network, we wanted to know what was going on
in other areas of the country.
Kelleher (fourth from left) gathers with the other regional representatives of EDNA (later ENA)
and Johnson & Johnson representatives at the first regional representatives’ meeting in New
Brunswick, N.J., in January 1972. ENA’s other co-founder, Anita Dorr, is sixth from right.
What was going on with emergency nursing at that time?
At the time, emergency nursing, or the emergency
department, was considered a stepchild in the hospital
organization. They referred to us as a losing department, or
they didn’t even call us a department.
The emergency room was a losing
matter. They ignored us if they could.
What did you learn during your year
as president that ENA members might
not know?
I learned during my year as president
that it takes a lot of dedication and work
on all the nurses’ part to form an
organization. It can’t be done by one
person or two persons, you have to have
the cooperation of a lot of nurses and we
had that.
by a physician, and that didn’t
set too well with me. So I met
the doctor who had written the
book at the door when he
came out of his lecture, and I
told him I was very unhappy
with it. And he said, ‘Oh, well,
, CEN,
ara Baldwin, RN
Kelleher with Barb
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in
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anniversary meetin
Do you have any early memories of what
typifies the spirit of ENA?
I think the thing that typifies ENA in those early years is
that we began to speak out and speak up for emergency
nursing, for emergency nursing education, for emergency
nursing recognition, and educating some of the doctors that
we were here and we were here to stay. I recall one incident
when we were at a conference and I discovered that there
had been a new book written, and the chapter in the book
on emergency nursing was written by a physician who said
that — and he should be nameless — he said emergency
nurses should be interviewed, hired, oriented, evaluated and
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supervised
we will change it.’ And I said,
‘Well, you can’t because it is
written in stone, but when you
What made you want to start an
organization for emergency nurses?
Nurses had no voice, really, in health
care. … I went to a course in San Diego that
was presented for emergency medical
technicians, and at that meeting I met Dr.
Bill Striker and I said to him, ‘You know,
this is a good course, but we need
something director towards emergency
nurses,’ and he said, ‘Well, I think maybe
we can work that out. Dr. George Anist is
coming out there tomorrow and he just had
a course in Chicago for emergency nurses,’
and I found out later that [ENA co-founder]
Anita Dorr had spoken at that course. ... The
next year, Dr. Striker asked me to speak at
the course in San Diego, and I did. I spoke
on the emergency nurse and the nurse in
the emergency department. That was
published in RN magazine, I believe in
October of 1970. Then there was an article
about Anita and me in that journal, and the
floodgates opened after that. So we had to
get something started.
Where do you feel this organization will
be in the future?
I think there are no bounds as to where
we can go. We have accomplished so much
in these 25 years. We have come from
obscurity to being right out in the front line.
It always thrilled me and still does to see the
nurses who are appointed to national
committees, to state committees of all
different kinds and who are asked to visit
the White House to give input on health
care bills in the states and nationally. It is
just thrilling to see all these things, and I
think this is going to continue even more in
the future because emergency nurses are
not known for being afraid to step in, for
being shy. I think it takes a certain kind of
person to work in the emergency
department. It takes a lot of courage, and it
takes knowledge.
have anything to say about
emergency nurses, ask emergency nurses.’ And I went home
and I wrote the doctor who had written the chapter on
emergency nursing, and it was a very short letter. It said,
‘Dear Ron, look what some S.O.B. wrote and signed your
name to. Sincerely, Judy. P.S. I can’t believe you would think
such as this.’ I sent that to the national office — by that time
we were sharing with ACEP — and I got some very funny
replies from them. They said everybody in the office was
laughing like mad, and when the doctor I had written this to
came in and read it, he said only Judy could say something
like that and get away with it.
May 2013
ENA 2013 President-elect
Deena Brecher, MSN,
RN, APRN, ACNS-BC,
CEN, CPEN (foreground)
and Secretary/Treasurer
Matthew F. Powers, MS,
BSN, RN, MICP, CEN,
join other members
of the ENA Board of
Directors in placing
roses on Kelleher’s
casket during the
“Nightingale Tribute” at
her funeral services.
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