Marvel King Davis, RN, MSN

1. What inspired you to become a nurse?
There was a nurse who lived across the street. I liked the uniform. I had young dreams about playing baseball or softball, but I knew that uniform would be dirty all the time. My aunts and cousins were all teachers. I became the first nurse in the family. I struggled with whether or not I was doing the right thing. The appeal to me was I would be doing something different. One of my mentors told me that I could always teach in nursing. Nursing allows you to work in so many settings. So I got to do my teaching that way. Nursing is an understated profession. We are talking about life, the responsibilities that come with it and the impact in life that we make in concrete ways.

2. What are your specialties, and how did you get there?
Psychiatric nursing. I thought about pediatrics and pediatric psychiatry early on. While completing my rotation at the hospital, psychiatry was my last piece. It fit like a glove. I felt comfortable talking to patients. I was frightened at first, but then I saw how the psychiatric patients could recover and leave the hospital. I had an impact on them.

I have worked for providers, psychiatric hospitals, state institutions, school settings and health centers. I've worked with a variety of patients in all walks of life.

Illness is a leveler. It's about people. You have to learn to relate to people. Those are the qualities that matter. Psychiatry -- it needs to be talked about. America had to put on the table the fact that mental illness is another illness. People need support and supportive care. Our work gives them the opportunity to get better.

3. Are nurses teachers?
It's an absolute integral part of nursing. We provide training, teach families how to care, teach patients about their illnesses, how to avoid side effects, to become medically compliant. We just consider teaching to be part of the practice. It's especially important in psychiatry because when patients feel better they don't want to take medications any more. Other medications are time limited -- with psychiatry, it's not like that. Patients feel that if they continue taking the medications, then they are still sick. That's why they need in-your-face education. I always tell them you are the expert on how you feel; the doctor is the expert on the medication and what you should take.

4. What do you like best about working in the nursing field?
The opportunity to work with people and see them come from despair to being able to leave the hospital. In the past, patients would leave more stable because of the length of stay that was allowed to them. Sometimes you didn't think it was possible that they would get better. Our work now is to help stabilize them on medications. The real recovery now goes on elsewhere. We also provide an outpatient setting, which teaches coping skills -- when you start to feel this way there are other ways to deal with the stress and the pain. Over the years I've seen many patients get better. There is certainly discouragement because of recidivism when they may have to come back. But it may be an opportunity for them to learn something else. It doesn't mean they are failures. We provide a level of encouragement and support. Through my work, I encourage patients to start where they are today and look forward. I want to help their tomorrow to be better.

5. What, if any, barriers have you had to overcome?
Of course there are, some of them subtle with the way the world was and is. But I surround myself with people who can acknowledge differences; they don't have to cripple us. I knew that I could do anything that I wanted. In today's world, there are still subtle changes that need to be made. Through NBNA, African Americans now have more input around the issues that affect African Americans, such as education and preventive care.

6. Do you have a personal story you'd like to share?
I was working with a family who had a difficult time accepting their adult child's illness. I could truly understand their utter devastation. They were absolutely torn between having the child return home or sending him to a different setting. This impacted their willingness to hear the recommendations that we had made. By the end of the third meeting, they found acceptance, even though they felt as if they failed their child. It really pulled on my heartstrings. But they were able to make a decision to send their son to the next level of treatment. Ultimately it was the best for him. I tried to be supportive and acknowledge their pain. They needed to see that something different would help provide a different outcome.

7. What are your most proud accomplishments?
My family, my three sons and husband, Reid. I love being a mom. Also two years ago, Yale University presented me with the distinguished alumna award. As past president of the Alumni Association for the Nursing School, I saw the process for selecting the award recipients. It was a complete surprise that had me absolutely beside myself and discombobulated. I could not believe that I was honored in this way. They were announcing that the winner had attended Seton Hall University, and I sat up in my chair to see who it might be because I attended Seton Hall. Then I realized it was me. I was a little embarrassed.

8. What are your future plans?
Probably doing consultation work -- some paid, some volunteer. Because what's important starts early in life, I'd like to take what I've learned over the years and teach others. I'd like to be a mentor and role model. I used to fantasize about running a daycare, but I'm not sure that's going to happen.

9. What words of wisdom do you have for a student just graduating?
Nursing affords you the opportunity to work in a variety of settings without ever leaving the profession. You can work in medicine, surgery, pediatrics, schools, psychiatry, industry, research, education -- all through choosing to become a nurse. Nursing provides a place where you can teach, contribute part of who you are, make a difference and actually do.

10. Anything else you'd like us to know?
Last year, I was named historian for the National Black Nurses Association, and I'm the immediate past president of Southern CT Black Nurses Association. I am working as an adjunct professor at Yale University, School of Nursing. I serve as liaison for other schools of nursing during student clinical rotations in psychiatry at Western Connecticut State University, Quinnipiac University and Southern Connecticut State University.

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