The interview began with him recalling his childhood, which according to him, was a happy one. His mom was a bank teller and his dad was an electrician. He grew up in a very of Southwestern U.S. that had expansive farmlands and in a “very, rural part” town of around 10,000 people. He said that no one in his family tree had graduated college. However, he fondly remembered how his grandmother, a woman with no formal education, was one of the founding women of the Democratic Women of the State. Aside from being politically active, she also published articles on the history and state’s mining communities but had to do so with men because, at that time, women were not permitted to publish on their own. He recalled his grandmother as someone who was ahead of her time. Because of growing up in that kind of environment, self-learning and taking charge of things came natural to him. No one in his family was the medical field. In fact, Dean Smith is a first-generation college graduate and the first RN in the family: When I was thinking about what I wanted to do, it about gender; it was wasn’t about what I was interested in. I think a lot of that came . . . My parents were very, you need to do what you love type of people. Because I . . . They don’t understood there was a value in education, but they understand what it didn’t meant. They did not push us. They pushed us to learn, but not necessarily to go in any particular direction. My sister had the same thing, so there been so hasn’t much difference between us in those choices. When asked how he got interested in nursing, because there was no role model in the family to emulate, he explained that as a child he was interested in anything related to biology, technology, and the fine arts. He is a second career RN. He had a degree in fine arts and owned a business as a technical designer before he went back to school to become a nurse. When his father got sick and later died from cancer, he witnessed the work that nurses do for patients like his dad. He became emotional when he began talking about his father; I could hear it in his voice as he explained:
The interview began with him recalling his childhood, which according to him, was a happy one. His mom was a bank teller and his dad was an electrician. He grew up in a “very, very rural part” of Southwestern U.S. that had expansive farmlands and in a town of around 10,000 people. He said that no one in his family tree had graduated college. However, he fondly remembered how his grandmother, a woman with no formal education, was one of the founding women of the Democratic Women of the State. Aside from being politically active, she also published articles on the state’s history and mining communities but had to do so with men because, at that time, women were not permitted to publish on their own. He recalled his grandmother as someone who was ahead of her time. Because of growing up in that kind of environment, self-learning and taking charge of things came natural to him. No one in his family was the medical field. In fact, Dean Smith is a first-generation college graduate and the first RN in the family: When I was thinking about what I wanted to do, it wasn’t about gender; it was about what I was interested in. I think a lot of that came . . . My parents were very, you need to do what you love type of people. Because I don’t . . . They understood there was a value in education, but they didn’t understand what it meant. They did not push us. They pushed us to learn, but not necessarily to go in any particular direction. My sister had the same thing, so there hasn’t been so much difference between us in those choices. When asked how he got interested in nursing, because there was no role model in the family to emulate, he explained that as a child he was interested in anything related to biology, technology, and the fine arts. He is a second career RN. He had a degree in fine arts and owned a business as a technical designer before he went back to school to become a nurse. When his father got sick and later died from cancer, he witnessed the work that nurses do for patients like his dad. He became emotional when he began talking about his father; I could hear it in his voice as he explained:
Fernan-Dissertation-01-06-2016.docx