Frances Louise Donovan
Bio
Frances Donovan was born in Clearwater, Florida. Following her secondary education, she attended nursing school due to a lifelong desire to be a nurse. After working in a hospital for a few months following graduation, she decided to join the United States Army Nurse Corps, seeking adventure. After basic training, she worked in a tuberculosis hospital, treating veterans who returned home from Korea. She left the Army in 1953 and went back to civilian nursing but later decided to join the United States Air Force. She was stationed in Germany and France where she continued military nursing. While there, she met her husband, and later became pregnant in 1958, at which time she was discharged.
Video Clips
Experience at Basic Training
Frances Donovan describes her basic training in San Antonio,Texas. She admits she had never traveled outside of the area she grew up and basic training was a big change of pace. She shares how she learned how to do things in the U.S. Army way as well as how to accept everything and everyone. She remembers, with pride, how she left basic training with a commission as second lieutenant.
Working in a Stateside Tuberculosis Hospital
Frances Donovan recalls her first assignment at a Stateside tuberculosis hospital. She remembers all of her patients were soldiers returning from Korea with tuberculosis or other respiratory issues. She explains how the treatment for tuberculosis was to collapse the lung and then bed rest until the lungs healed. She recounts one difficulty centered on soldiers not following these orders which delayed their recovery as well as made her job more difficult.
Treating Patients
Frances Donovan describes the wards of the hospital and how many patients would be there at a time. She recalls her patients and the difficulty she had getting some of them to stay in bed and rest. She shares how she had to find the right button to push with the soldiers for them to follow orders. She remembers working on the prison ward at times and being harassed by some of the men.