Reflections On Half a Century in Nursing
After finishing nursing school and moving back home to Huntsville, Gayle Stinnett didn’t bother applying for a job at the most obvious place.
“Back then, in 1975, I didn’t feel like I was ready to work in a large hospital,” Gayle recalls. “And Huntsville Hospital was huge – I called it the Big House. Even though I was born there, it was still kind of intimidating to me.” 
Fortunately, Gayle conquered her fears. She retired from Huntsville Hospital on August 15 after 50 years of service, making her one of the longest-tenured registered nurses in the hospital’s history.
Growing up in the Rocket City during the 1960s space race, Gayle had her heart set on becoming a history teacher – until she made a D in a history class at UAH.
“That made me realize I probably needed to switch gears,” she said. “And God has a way of taking you different places.”
She decided to follow a friend to nursing school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. After graduating, Gayle accepted a job caring for coronary and post-surgery patients at Huntsville Hospital’s much smaller competitor, Medical Center Hospital.
In 1994, Huntsville Hospital purchased the Governors Drive facility from Humana and turned it into Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children.
Gayle transferred to the “Big House” as a clinical nurse specialist for the Surgical and Medical ICUs and surgical step-down units. By this point, she was a seasoned caregiver no longer intimidated by the hustle and bustle of a large urban hospital.
Gayle quickly proved her worth by helping the hospital prepare for Joint Commission visits, organizing events for bedside caregivers to hone their clinical skills, and teaching other nurses how to read EKG results and perform advanced cardiac life support.
In 2008, she moved to a clinical education specialist role at HH’s Corporate University. A teacher at heart, Gayle excelled at training newly-hired patient care aides and keeping them up to date on the latest health care topics and trends.
“I would start by asking all the patient care aides who they thought was the most important person in the hospital,” Gayle said. “Someone would say ‘doctors,’ then another person would say ‘nurses.’ But the right answer, of course, is the patient.
“If not for the patient, the rest of us wouldn’t be here.”
Gayle said she is forever indebted to the many current and retired hospital leaders who provided encouragement on her long nursing journey – Brian Buchmann, Elise Taylor, Angie Renfroe, Peggy Matzkiw and Janet Woods, to name just a few.
Looking back half a century later, Gayle hardly recognizes the nursing profession she entered right out of college. In 1975, RNs wore starched white dresses with stockings and painstakingly wrote patient care notes by hand. There were no electronic health records, digital thermometers or wireless blood pressure monitors.
Now that she has hung up her scrubs, Gayle is looking forward to traveling with her husband, Fred, and spending time volunteering with the Huntsville Herb Society and local master gardener groups.
“I’m really going to miss nursing,” she says. “I am so thankful and blessed to Huntsville Hospital for the many opportunities I've had and the support that has been given to me.”
