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When Detta Quigley-Lavoie came to work at the Robert Breck Brigham Hospital (RBBH) in 1969, it was common for some nurses to call the operating room the "theater" and to ask for a "trolley" when they needed a stretcher. These phrases were brought over from Ireland, where many RBBH nurses, including County Monaghan native Quigley-Lavoie, were born and raised.
Learning that some words didn't mean the same here as they did in Ireland was one of the things Quigley-Lavoie discovered when she joined the many Irish nurses at RBBH, one of the predecessor hospitals of BWH. In the mid 1960s, Boston hospitals routinely recruited nurses from the Emerald Isle, and many chose RBBH. Those nurses spread the word to their friends back home, and many more, including Quigley-Lavoie, excitedly traveled to Boston to pursue nursing careers at RBBH.
Quigley-Lavoie and the other nurses lived in hospital-provided housing on Parker Hill Avenue, where they shared great friendships and a love for throwing spur-of-the-moment parties. "We took our work and patients very seriously, but we didn't take much else seriously," she recalled.
The atmosphere of RBBH was amicable, and staff worked hard, bonding with their patients and each other. "The teamwork was phenomenal; you were never alone," she said. "We loved our patients. It must have been a culture shock for them to have so many Irish nurses," she added, laughing.
Quigley-Lavoie's greatest shock when she arrived in Boston in March of 1969 was the elaborate celebration of St. Patrick's Day, when Bostonians donned their green, gold and white and celebrated for days. In Ireland, it was a holy day. "You wore a real shamrock, and you attended Mass and a parade," she said, adding that the Boston festivities were something to look forward to at the end of winter.
At that time, Quigley-Lavoie intended to stay in Boston only a few years. She returned to Ireland after two years to study, but didn't stay away for long. She came back to RBBH in 1975, this time intending to stay three months. But she got comfortable here, she said. "It was always active and there was always a buzz going on. Why would I want to go anywhere else?"
Much has changed in Boston and at BWH since those days, but Quigley-Lavoie, now nurse manager of CWN-7, still has fond memories of the building she can see in the distance from her office window.