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Medical Background
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Our family of five, I being the youngest, grew up in the 1950s in what was then rural Orange, California. Around the age of ten, my mother, Donna Zschoche, who had dropped out of school during World War II to work in the aircraft factories in Long Beach, California, decided to go back and finish high school. I remember being at my mother's high school graduation and how proud we were of her accomplishment.
Mom went onto get an Associate of Arts degree and became a Registered Nurse. Before she was finished, she had her PhD and had changed the world of medicine forever.
Mom went onto get an Associate of Arts degree and became a Registered Nurse. Before she was finished, she had her PhD and had changed the world of medicine forever.
Beginning in the mid 1960s, mom became a supervising nurse at Orange County Medical Center, now UC Irvine Medical Center. During those years she founded critical care nursing, much to the surprise of many doctors who felt nurses were best left to change bed pans and washing patients. In the process, mother also founded the complete variety of critical care units now seen in hospitals throughout the world. She also started the very first paramedic program, authored/edited many publications, including Mosby's Comprehensive Review of Critical Care, and founded two national nursing associations. The American Association of Critical Care Nurses, which now boasts over 500,000 members, was started in our family home in Orange.
In all these endeavors, mom included me - inside the hospital and out. At the start of her historic work, I was a teenager working as an aide at the hospital and was witness to these great developments in the history of medicine. I also have worked in two (2) basic research and development (R&D) laboratories and done post graduate work at the School of Medicine, Autonomous University of Guadalajara, Mexico. I look forward, as I have in these last two years teaching medicine with the National Youth Leadership Forum at UCLA and UNC Chapel Hill, to be able to pass these first hand experiences along to today's aspiring teens as it was given to me so freely when I was a teen.
In all these endeavors, mom included me - inside the hospital and out. At the start of her historic work, I was a teenager working as an aide at the hospital and was witness to these great developments in the history of medicine. I also have worked in two (2) basic research and development (R&D) laboratories and done post graduate work at the School of Medicine, Autonomous University of Guadalajara, Mexico. I look forward, as I have in these last two years teaching medicine with the National Youth Leadership Forum at UCLA and UNC Chapel Hill, to be able to pass these first hand experiences along to today's aspiring teens as it was given to me so freely when I was a teen.
