Employment History:
Certificated School Nurse, Vancouver School District 37, Vancouver, WA (1972-1997); Educator, ADHD and ADD, Health Education Department, Kaiser Permanente Clinic, Portland, OR (1987-1997); Adjunct Instructor, School Nurses and Classroom Teachers Continuin

Published Works:

Public Speaking Experience:

Why F is an Expert:
At a late stage in my life, I became current and have a lot of expertise in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder [as it applies to] children from kindergarten through 12th grade, [although] I never worked in high schools. I worked from kindergarten through eighth grade.

Best Advice:
First of all, I’d advise them to try being a certified nursing assistant first, so that they get a feel for what it’s going to be like. That’s how I started – my mother put me in the hospital between my junior and senior year of high school and I worked as a nurse’s aid on one of the hardest floors. She said to me later that if I could make it through that, I could make it through nurse training. We can’t just jump into something that looks like it makes a lot of money, because there’s a certain quality to the person who becomes a nurse. There’s a certain drive that puts us into nursing, I suppose like all professions. Nursing is not easy; it can be life-threatening and we put our lives in the hands of doctors and nurses. A [new nurse] would have to have some real dedication to studying because the curriculum is very hard. You have to have this inside passion to want to be a nurse. Now, there is a lot of technology that takes care of the patient and the human touch is lessened. I’ve been a patient and I know that for sure.

Passionate about:
In healthcare, right now I feel passionate that all people should be equally given some type of affordable healthcare and prescriptions and that seniors don’t become frightened that their Medicare and social security will be attacked. If young people don’t get involved today and anything gets passed that isn’t good, then they will have missed the boat again because older people can’t be blamed for the lack of activity from the 35 to 45-year-old group. They aren’t sick, so they’re not thinking they should be involved in this healthcare issue. If they’re not involved now, it can only get worse.

Biography Excerpt:
For Patricia Dunlap Farley, becoming a nurse seemed an obvious choice to make. Her mother was a nurse who encouraged her early on to begin training, which she did before working in various hospitals. Now, her daughter has pursued the same calling. Ms. Dunlap Farley went on to serve as a school nurse for 25 years and developed a special knack for working with students diagnosed with attention deficit disorders. Now retired for more than 10 years, she continues to fuel her passion for helping others as a parish nurse and part-time worker at the Montana Mental Health Nursing Care Center. Her belief that nursing is not just a job, but an exciting and enhancing journey, has guided this spirited individual through a 51-year career, one that continues to offer her joy and fulfillment.

     

Cambridge Who's Who: Are there any significant issues you feel are more pressing than others in your profession today?  
PATRICIA A. DUNLAP-FARLEY BSN, MS:  I think our healthcare industry, insurance companies and pharmaceutical supply companies are getting the money that ultimately should be recycled into the care of the patient. They’ve always blamed the nurses for using all the money in the hospitals, but in Seattle, about 15 years ago, they actually let nurses go to save money. Guess what happened: patients started dying and they had to get them back because the nurse is the doorkeeper for everything that happens to the patient. In some ways, I’ve noticed that patient care has slipped. I’ve been in the hospitals and watched the nurses.

Would you say that there is less interaction with patients?
Yes, from my personal perspective as a patient. I saw the nurse very rarely, only for them to give me a pill or to do something specifically that no one else could do. Everything is on the computers and they’re watching a lot of things that we never watched. Take, for instance, obstetrics: they have a lot of machines that monitor the baby. We used to do it. We used to be in there all the time with the patients, soothing them and checking them to find out if they were ready to deliver. Now, the machines are hooked up the moment the new mother approaches delivery. The patients are leaving the hospital sooner, so we don’t even have as much time to take care of them. The whole culture of nursing has changed since I was training. I would say that Montana, however, is just beginning to change. Montana is very different from any state that you’ll ever be in. We have to drive more than 100 miles to find a hospital with a specialist. In Montana, a nurse practitioner can do things they can’t do in other states; they can have their own office, they can prescribe medication – just not narcotics – and they can’t do surgery, but they can do just about everything a physician does.

Is there a motto or principle that you live by?
Keep working toward being the best you can be, not toward perfection because you’ll never reach that. If you make a mistake, it’s just a mistake. It doesn’t mean that you’re a failure. Never give up, stay involved and stay current in your thinking and your focus.