College of Nursing dedicates new Nursing Resource Center to devoted public health nurse
A retired public health nurse, University of Florida alumna and Fort Walton Beach resident, Iona M. Pettengill devoted much of her career to the care of underserved patients and the education of future nurses. In recognition of an anonymous gift in her honor, the UF College of Nursing has dedicated their new state-of-the-art skills laboratory as the Iona M. Pettengill Nursing Resource Center.
The center is the first room to be dedicated in the new Health Professions/Nursing/Pharmacy Complex, which opened in January on the campus of UF’s Health Science Center. The Pettengill Nursing Resource Center is an expanded and enhanced educational laboratory designed to provide hands-on learning experiences for nursing students. The center, which accommodates approximately 160 people, is equipped with advanced technology, including wireless Web access, projection screens for each laboratory, two human patient simulators and an intravenous injection simulator.
The center’s dedication, which took place Jan. 17, was a surprise to Pettengill, who was unknowingly ushered into the ceremony, where her family and friends, College of Nursing faculty and students, and Health Science Center administrators were in attendance. During the ceremony, Kathleen Ann Long, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., College of Nursing dean, and Douglas Barrett, M.D., UF vice president for health affairs, paid tribute to Pettengill’s distinguished career.
“This honor memorializes Mrs. Pettengill’s commitment to nursing and reminds us that Iona is a role model to the nursing profession,” Long said.
The naming of the Iona M. Pettengill Nursing Resource Center was spurred by a $500,000 gift made in Pettengill’s name, to support educational programs to promote public health nursing and to provide health care to underserved patients. Establishment of the Iona M. Pettengill Graduate Fellowship in Public and Community Health will support a master’s level nursing student pursuing a specialty in public health and community nursing.
The gift also will support improved health care in rural communities. The Health Care for All Fund will provide resources to enhance the college’s faculty practice site, Archer Family Health Care, and future college-managed facilities. The Health Care for All Education Fund will establish an endowment to encourage nursing education in rural areas to address community health-care issues.
Pettengill was born in Maine in 1924 and was inspired by a public health nurse who cared for her sister, who was thought to have tuberculosis. In 1942, Pettengill entered a nursing diploma program at the Portland, Maine, General Hospital School of Nursing. She forged close ties with her fellow classmates in the program, and four of them traveled from around the country to the dedication ceremony.
She married Dwynal Pettengill and in 1947 moved to Florida. Dwynal began attending UF in 1948. While her husband worked toward his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Pettengill worked for the Alachua County Health Department training new employees of all disciplines. Pettengill’s family relocated several times in the years after, and she received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland.
While on the faculty at Eastern Kentucky University, Pettengill heard of a summer master’s program being offered at UF. Between 1968 and 1971, Pettengill attended the program, bringing one or both of her children with her each summer. She admired the college’s founding Dean Dorothy Smith, whom she described as a “feisty and formidable lady.”
“I completely agreed with her philosophy of combining education and practice to turn out the most competent nurses,” Pettengill said.
Pettengill eventually received her master’s degree with a specialty in maternal health in 1971. She was recruited as a public health nursing consultant for the Florida State Department of Health in maternal-infant health and family planning in conjunction with the U.S. Health Education and Welfare Services, the equivalent of the present-day Health and Human Services Department. Pettengill’s two children, John and Mary, fondly remember their mother’s time at UF and realize the impact of her nursing career. John recalled how the most educational experience of his life occurred when he rode along with his mother on one of her rotations to see patients in mostly rural communities.
“We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but I found out just how wealthy we were that day,” said John, now a Key West resident.
“Throughout her career, my mom was the only source of health care for many of her patients. She worked hard and truly cared for her patients. She was so passionate about nursing and public health.”
During the dedication ceremony, Long, Barrett, faculty members and student representatives paid tribute to Pettengill’s career and recognized how the gift would symbolize the passion and dedication she felt toward the care of all patients.
“This truly is recognizing a remarkable career devoted to providing care for the underserved,” Barrett said. “This unique gift will benefit both education and practice and help us address critical nursing and nursing faculty shortages. The gift to Archer Family Health Care is symbolic of the career that [Pettengill] has spanned in public health nursing.”
“This ceremony has resurrected a mountain of memories in my heart,” Pettengill said. “I had quite a career that held many challenges, and I have been greatly blessed because of everything I have experienced. I have no way to pay back what nursing has given to me and my family.”
Long unveiled a plaque with a tribute to Pettengill, which will hang in the new center. She read the words engraved on the plaque: “The Nursing Resource Center is named in honor of Iona M. Pettengill, to recognize her lifelong commitment to nursing. Mrs. Pettengill’s 50 years of outstanding service as a public health nurse and nursing educator epitomizes the caring and compassionate philosophy of the profession.”