<Begin Segment 24>

SY: And, but then after you finished, that's when you started teaching? When did you start teaching?

CI: In '68. That's when Roberta Lindburg, the director of the nursing program, called and said, "She's a County grad, she can do anything." That's what she said.

SY: So you were still school nursing.

CI: No. At that time, the Unified School District and the College District was all one, they were together. And then about a year after I went to work at Harbor, they separated and they became different entities. So I was able to transfer all of my units and everything to Harbor, so I was very fortunate. And so I had to teach, I had to teach the cardiovascular system. I knew nothing about it, so the first lecture I had, I said, "How many hours is it?" Said, "Two hours." Two hours? So I stayed up, I would say I stayed up all night to give this lecture. And so I had a friend that was on their faculty, and she said, "You can't teach all that." I had pages and pages. I had, well, two hours' worth. I've got to have all of these notes. And so she said, "Chris, you can't get through all that." And I said, "Well, I'm going to try." And so those poor kids. Well, I taught them the anatomy of the heart, something that would take weeks. And she said, "How much did you get through?" I said, "I got through all of it." [Laughs] That's what happened.

SY: So did you do that again? Did you keep teaching like that?

CI: Yes. Oh, I got better and better.

SY: You got better, good.

CI: Yeah. But I taught for ten years and then I became chair of the department, chairman of the nursing program at Harbor.

SY: Wow, at Harbor?

CI: Uh-huh.

SY: So what did that involve?

CI: Well, that's purely administrative. All that's administrative.

SY: So you didn't have to teach anymore?

CI: I didn't teach anymore. [Laughs]

SY: And then, and what were the years that you were working as the chairman?

CI: 1979 to 1989, ten years.

SY: Wow. So you had a varied career in nursing. You did all kinds of different things.

CI: Uh-huh, I did.

SY: And which of those things did you enjoy the most?

CI: Well, I think I enjoyed the administrative. I did like that.

SY: Because? What was it about it that you liked?

CI: Well, you could make changes and see changes. And I had a wonderful faculty. So it's always nice...

SY: And you had power.

CI: Well, there is power. [Laughs] Used judiciously, you can accomplish a lot.

SY: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.