Oral history interview with Daphine Doster Mastroianni, 1999

Documents Daphine Doster Mastroianni's education at the North Carolina College for Women (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro); her work as a music teacher and surgical nurse before World War II; her service with Army Nurse Corps (ANC) in New Zealand, Fiji, and India from 1942 to 1945; and her post-war work with the U.S. Public Health Service, Arkansas Health Department, and the University of Arkansas. Mastroianni discusses her time at the North Carolina College for Women, focusing primarily on the music department. She also mentions some professors, the administrators, a senior trip, and her close friends. Pre-war employment topics include forming a glee club at Cherryville High School and organizing a band at Kings Mountain High School. She also discusses in detail the process of getting into John Hopkins School of Nursing and its cost and uniforms; she also discusses the atmosphere and her experiences working as a surgical nurse there. " Mastroianni describes at length her service in the ANC. She recalls joining the 18th General Hospital; her training at Fort Jackson; the train ride to San Francisco; her trip on the U.S.S. James Parker and her stay in New Zealand; her time stationed in Fiji and a Fourth of July celebration; her assignment in Calcutta, including the poverty she saw, the danger of snakes and mosquitoes, and the discomfort; and briefly her time at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. " Mastroianni speaks of post-war achievements in the field of nursing. She comments on receiving her masters in public health from the Minnesota School of Public Health, working with the U.S. Public Health Service, and her service with the Arkansas Health Department. Most of the post-war discussion details her work as acting dean of nursing from 1952 to 1953 at the University of Arkansas. She talks in depth about her struggles to start a school of nursing and a bachelor of science program in nursing there. " Other topics include how Mastroianni met her husband on the boat ride from New Zealand to Fiji, and ...