Central Resident One of Earl K. Long Hospital’s First Nurses

By Elva Jo Crawford

    Earl K. Long Medical Center is scheduled to close its doors April 14, 2013, having provided just a little over 45 years of service to the citizens of East Baton Rouge Parish as well as eight other surrounding parishes. The March 5, 1968 issue of The State Times, Baton Rouge's evening paper, noted that the hospital had been opened that day at 8:00am, and that the first baby, Vera Lois Thomas, daughter ofMr. and Mrs. Louis Thomas, had been born that morning at 9:25 am. Many citizens of our Central community have received medical care at Earl K. Long, worked or have been educated and trained there. Many of Central’s current physicians have trained, worked or taught at EKL. The following article is about the life of a Central resident who was one of Earl K. Long Hospital's first nurses.

    Narcille Lorio was born in Simmesport, Louisiana in Avoyles Parish, the youngest of 12 children in the Couvillion family. She grew up speaking only French and didn't speak English until she started first grade. She remembers times growing up as a very young girl when she would be standing next to her mother answering their front door to salesmen traveling door-to-door who spoke English. As a young girl, she would listen to their "mumblings", not understanding what they were saying and having to ask her mother to translate after they left. During those days, speaking French was OK at home; but, prohibited in public schools. She says that when she did start first grade, being so young, she picked up on this new English language very quickly. Also, she says she had some exposure to English the year prior to starting first grade when her brother started school. He would bring his first grade text books home and read to her from them in English. Today she still understands French; but, rarely speaks it and not so fluently due to so few people being around that are conversational in French. Avoyles Parish is one the top six parishes in Louisiana in numbers of people who still speak French.  

    When Narcille graduated from high school in 1954 she started training to be a nurse at Our Lady of the Lake School of Nursing. Besides already having an interest in being a nurse, the other primary factor in making the choice to go to Baton Rouge's OLOL's 3-year program was financial affordability: For $500 a nursing student received 3 years of tuition, room, board and text books. And, as a bonus, Our Lady of the Lake Hospital laundered their uniforms! Her family could afford that. Having two brothers who lived in Baton Rouge at the time, one working and one going to LSD, helped her to make her decision, too …. she would have rides home to Simmesport.

    In the 1950's she says nurses' training and hospitals were a lot different than they are today. Some of the things we take for granted today were unheard of then. IV therapy back then was limited to blood transfusions only. CPR was not taught in medical or nursing schools. CPR did not come into common usage until the 1960's and 1970's. And, there was no Recovery Room. Patients were brought directly from surgery to their room to be cared for by a student nurse or one of the nursing staff on their unit. She says there was a lot more bedside care given to the patient by the nurse and far fewer machines and technical helps for nurses.

    For the first year of her nursing training, she was off on Saturdays. So, a friend of hers got Narcille and herself jobs at Giamanco's Restaurant on Government Street to have some spending money. For $3 a day plus whatever she wanted to eat from the restaurant, Narcille did ironing from 7am to 4 pm. While in nursing school she also met her husband-to-be through a mutual friend. However, there were no married students allowed in nursing school back then. Narcille and her husband, Jim Lorio, who had graduated from LSU in Electrical Engineering, waited until after she had graduated from nursing school to be married. (She says that of the 27 girls who started in her nursing school class, only 10 made it to graduation. She says of those 10 who graduated only 3 of them are alive today; and they are all retired.)

    In 1957 the Lorios moved to Central and built a home. Jim and Narcille had been looking for some property to build on; and, when some friends of theirs moved to Central they recommended that the Lorio family come, too. By 1968, the Lorio's youngest child had started kindergarten at Zoar Baptist and Narcille was considering going to work full-time. Prior to 1968 Narcille had stayed home with her young children and had worked only a few months at a doctor's office in Baton Rouge. When she saw an ad in the paper for nurses need at Earl K. Long Hospital she decided to mail in an application. The very next day after mailing in the application, she got a phone call from the Director of Nurses at Earl K. Long asking her to come to work right away. She was particularly interested in the job at Earl K. Long because of its Civil Service benefits and potential for a Louisiana State Retirement. The job being in a teaching hospital was something else she wanted in a work atmosphere. Another plus to this job was that Earl K. Long was only 4 miles from Central and there was very little traffic between her home and the hospital.

    So, in April of 1968, 3 weeks after Earl K. Long Hospital opened, Narcille started to work. Her job was in nursing supervision on the only unit of the hospital that was open at that time- 4 North. The unit was a combination unit of adult medicine patients, pediatrics, and also obstetrics. The Emergency Room on the first floor was only a 1 to 2 bed unit then. Over time, the other units and all five floors of the planned 350-bed hospital opened: 5 North became a pediatric unit of its own; 5 South-GYN; 4 North and 4 South-Adult Medicine; 4 East-Adult Medical ICU; 3rd Floor- Obstetrics, Well-Baby and NICU; 2 North and 2 South- Adult Surgery; 2 East-Surgical Adult ICU; and a very large ER and very large Out-Patient service on the first floor. In addition, a physical therapy department, social services department, and out-patient pharmacy, to name only a few, eventually opened.

    Narcille stayed on 4 North as supervisor ofthis very busy adult medicine unit until her retirement in 1996.

    All 3 of the Lorio children graduated from Central High and LSU. Their oldest daughter, Judy, went on to LSU Medical School where she met her husband, Johnny White. They both trained some at Earl K. Long during their medical school years while Narcille was still working on 4 North. Judy and Johnny both went on to do residencies in Internal Medicine and are both practicing physicians. Narcille's youngest daughter, Anita, and her husband, Doug Schreiber, currently have a daughter in medical school at LSU. This granddaughter plans to go into medical research when she finishes. Narcille's son, Buddy, is married to Betsy Bretton who is a Family Practice physician. So, the whole family is tied to the practice of medicine in some way.

    After Narcille and Jim retired, they enjoyed several years traveling the United States by way of an RV. Narcille says there is a lot of work in making a vacation work in an RV; but, well worth it. She says they got to experience some wonderful places traveling that way, including seeing the state of Alaska. Jim passed away in 2005 after a lengthy illness, one week prior to Hurricane Katrina.

    Today, Narcille stays busy keeping up with her three grown children and their spouses as well as her four grandchildren. She is active at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church. Central is blessed to have had her and her family be part of the community.