Interview with Rebecca Walls, R.N., Nursing ConsultantWALLS: You are welcome. I'm glad to do it. JAMPHL: Perhaps we should start out by having you tell us something briefly about your hearing loss. For example, when did you acquire it? WALLS: It is congenital. My mother kept telling the pediatrician she thought I couldn't hear. The doctor kept saying, “Oh, she'll catch up.” My deafness was confirmed at age 2 1/2. Deafness runs in my family and there are two others. I have a sister who is four years younger than me who is Deaf. (They initially thought she was autistic before finding her deafness.) My father told me that he has a cousin who “talked with his hands”. JAMPHL: With the diagnosis of your hearing loss, what were the language and educational options for you? WALLS: My parents were approached by the Memphis Speech and Hearing Center in Memphis, TN to have me start speech therapy, and my parents complied with that recommendation. My mother seems to recall that back in the 1950's the Memphis Speech and Hearing Center did my therapy five days a week, two hours a day. JAMPHL: Wow, doing such intense therapy in that manner is somewhat unheard of unless you're enrolled in a deaf education or auditory/verbal therapy program. Did you wear hearing aids? WALLS: I began to wear hearing aids right at age 2 1/2, when I was diagnosed. Plus, I had one hearing aid in the left ear only. I never had the luxury of wearing two hearing aids. JAMPHL: Tell me about your education. Were you mainstreamed? WALLS: I first went to the Memphis Oral School for the Deaf; I was mainstreamed later at age 9. My teacher, Mrs. Ward (who later became the director of the school for many years), was instrumental in getting me mainstreamed. She affirms that I was the first student from the Memphis Oral School for the Deaf to be mainstreamed. JAMPHL: That must have been a real accomplishment for both the school and for you and your family. WALLS: The funny thing is I never realized that I was the first until 1989. I went back for a school reunion and that fact became known to me. JAMPHL: Great. Well tell me what life was like in the mainstream setting back then. What were the accommodations like? WALLS: My teacher, Mrs. Ward, who seemed to be in the mood to experiment with me, advocated for me to start the second grade with my hearing sister Charlotte who is only 18 months younger than me. We are close. That was the only accommodation I had, and that was 1962. Having my sister with me helped me to adjust. I also developed the habit of sitting in the front row. That is all. JAMPHL: Would you say you adjusted well? WALLS: I was very well accepted largely due to my laid back and nice personality. (Laughs) JAMPHL: What was your hearing loss at the time you graduated? WALLS: My hearing loss has always been severe to profound, yet I functioned decently as a hard of hearing individual. JAMPHL: Now when it came time for you to graduate, what did you feel your options were? WALLS: Looking back, it appears I thought of myself as "normal," and I feel that it had to do with being mainstreamed. I made up my mind to become a nurse. To be honest, I asked the Lord for career guidance and received clarity to pursue nursing. Once I fixated on that, I pursued it. There were obstacles and rejections to overcome, but I placed my self-esteem and worth on what I felt God told me to do. I refused to listen to people. Mind you, I did struggle with hurt feelings and anguish. But after thinking it over, I kept going. JAMPHL: What were people telling you? WALLS: The nursing director of the nursing school told me to go to the doctor to have him sign a paper that I can attend school. So I went to my ENT [otolaryngologist] who had known me since I was a baby. He was old and crotchety and told me with a nasty frown on his face, "You can't be a nurse!" I took my paper and left his office. JAMPHL: What happened then? WALLS: I went to another ENT, a younger one. He said he knew about an amplified stethoscope and that he'd order it for me. When the stethoscope came in, I went back into his office and he taught me how to hear the blood pressure and the heart beat with it. He then signed my paper and told me, "Good Luck!" That was somewhere between 1973 and 1974. JAMPHL: So did you get into nursing school? WALLS: Well, the nursing director told my Mom on the phone that she couldn't promise to let me in the school. She would only give me an interview to help her decide. JAMPHL: So what happened? WALLS: I think I flew to the school in Chattanooga with my luggage and a huge box with my belongings, and I went in for the interview. When she was resistant, I was persuasive; telling her I had come all the way from Memphis with all of my possessions and that there was a huge box in the hallway. JAMPHL: And she let you in? WALLS: She asked what I was going to do once I entered surgery rotation with everyone wearing masks in the second year. I told her I didn't know but I'd figure something out when the time came. When I said that, she relented and said I “was in school”. JAMPHL: Tell us about your college experience. WALLS: I took two full semesters of courses at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga that first year and found it hard because I had no accommodations. I took Microbiology, Anatomy, Physiology, and English among others. The year was 1974-1975. I flunked my Anatomy final exam and was able to negotiate with the help of a good friend/advocate to retake the test and passed the test the second time. I thought I would mention this to encourage others, "if at first you don't succeed, try and try again." JAMPHL: Good advice. Did you have trouble in lecture-type classrooms and what did you do to adjust? WALLS: I loved lecture type learning. I had no trouble with it. Thinking back, the only time I didn’t sit up front was during that Anatomy class. I sat in the back with my friends and I recall having trouble hearing the professor. That’s the only time I can remember not doing what was best for me. This goes to show what happens when we don’t get the help we need when we need it. For the second year I think it was surgery rotation at the hospital-based nursing school. Guess what I found out about my Surgery rotation RN teacher? He was hard of hearing! He wore hearing aids and lost his hearing when he was 19 years old. That school director never mentioned it! JAMPHL: Wow! WALLS: His name is Mr. French, and he connected to me right away. I think he was so glad to have someone like him. He went out of his way to help me. JAMPHL: So he was like a mentor to you. WALLS: Yes, he was a wonderful mentor. He taught me to think ahead, and to anticipate and know what the operating surgeon needed before he asked for it. He also taught me the signs for the instruments. He then placed me with surgeons that preferred using signs/signals for instruments rather than talking. JAMPHL: Now that is an interesting accommodation. WALLS: It's operating room signs for instruments, which is similar to sports when referees use signs for penalties. Some of the surgeons preferred to signal what they needed rather than ask verbally. Some surgeons can concentrate better this way. When I had to take the performance test at the end of the rotation, Mr. French was so proud! JAMPHL: Can you tell us another memorable experience during your nursing school years and then we'll move on to your career? WALLS: I worked part-time as a nurse aide all through nursing school. My shift started at 3:00 pm and I would have to take about thirty blood pressures and “Oh” my ears hurt! The binaural was uncomfortable. An anesthesiologist heard my complaint, so he cut an IV tubing and took my earmold and stuck the tubing in the earmold. I used that rather than the binaural on my amplified stethoscope. I loved it and was so tickled! JAMPHL: In terms of your career, how was it in terms of finding a job and how did you end up where you are now? WALLS: Right after graduation in May 1977, I married that weekend (Memorial weekend) and we moved to Knoxville after that. I started working at a hospital immediately on second shift, which ran from 3-11 pm. I later changed from an adult hospital to a children’s hospital and worked several years in that hospital full-time for short periods alternating with working part-time mostly while my sons were little. As the boys got older, I diversified my nursing work experience by trying different areas outside the hospital. JAMPHL: Was getting a job hard for you and did your hearing loss ever become an issue then? WALLS: It was real hard to find what I wanted to do, what made me happy to do. It was hard to get what I WANTED. I did experience some rejections. For example, one allergist physician told me I had a “speech impediment” and even asked if I “would be interested in speech therapy” if he “hired me”? He later changed his mind. His partner was a good friend of mine, and they argued over me. Afterwards, my doctor friend told me I was better off not working for that doctor. I also worked for a home infusion company. It was hard work, but I loved it because I was learning something new. My boss there refused to give me benefits. She said that she didn't have to because there was no law (e.g., Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA]) she had to give it to me. Then they hired another nurse after me and I found out that they gave her benefits. So, I found another job and quit that job. That was in 1990 just a few months before the ADA law passed. JAMPHL: Was this because of your hearing condition? WALLS: Yeah. I struggled some with the phone in that job due to getting a lot of “cold calls”, meaning calls from complete strangers and the fact that the phone wasn’t a good one for me. Once I got the amplifier, I improved on the phone. My boss disliked having to provide any kind of special accommodations. That was the basis in her reluctance to give me any benefits. JAMPHL: So there was a little bit of discrimination at some points in your career, but you always managed to bounce back. What of your job now? WALLS: Oh, I cried a lot, but yeah, nobody tells me what I can't do. It makes me more determined! After years of working in the hospital and working for the Department of Health, I took a Tennessee state job (moved to Nashville) as a Nurse Consultant. I love it. It's so different! I finally have a boss that is encouraging me to be all I can be. This never happened to me before. He seems interested in my professional growth. JAMPHL: Do you do clinical work anymore? WALLS: Not this past year. I'm taking a break and trying to figure out what I want to pursue on the side in Nashville. Currently, I'm doing lots of research on the computer on medical issues. I like having access to the computer and the Internet. I’m learning a lot. Being very progressive, I was frustrated when my last job did not allow us access to the Internet. JAMPHL: I’m glad to hear that you enjoy your new job. Here’s a topic shift. I know that you have a cochlear implant. Can you give us a brief synopsis of what led you to get an implant and how it has impacted your work experience? WALLS: My very small window of residual hearing was stable all my life, but all of a sudden (along with other symptoms) I began to lose what little hearing I had. My lone hearing aid didn't work for me anymore in 1998. In November 1998, I chose the implant so that I could continue functioning as a nurse. I wanted to maintain my earning capacity. JAMPHL: So how did getting an implant change your work as a nurse? WALLS: My implant has allowed me to use the phone again. It took a while, but I love this particular phone at work. It isn't special, it's the same as everyone else's but it is a good one! I can understand my voice mail. I get calls, and I'm not having too much trouble. What I do is have the secretary come tell me face to face who is calling. This way I don't experience the initial confusion as to who it is on the other end. The secretary telling me who the caller is helps me to orient myself with the phone call. However, I'm relying on the secretary less and less now that I’m getting acclimated to this new job. JAMPHL: Wonderful! Now Becky, do you have anything at all that you would like to impart to the readers of JAMPHL? WALLS: The most important thing a person can do is to believe in themselves and to trust in their beliefs. It may serve them well as a constant source of energy, motivation, and determination. Finally, they should not just listen to others; they should trust in the gifts that they possess. JAMPHL: Thank you so much Becky for being with us. WALLS: Thank you. It was a pleasure.
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