Dorothy McIlvain Scott understands what it means to provide care for patients in need. Born into a family with a commitment to public service, Miss Scott spent 27 years of her life as a nurse's aide, volunteering 36,000 hours for the Red Cross.
She earned her first Red Cross uniform at the age of five, visiting wounded soldiers during World War I. Her mother, Jane E. Scott, was in charge of the Red Cross volunteers at Baltimore's Fort McHenry, and the soldiers were delighted when she brought Dorothy with her to the barracks. Miss Scott recalls walking around the fort's peninsula, keeping company with the soldiers in their wheelchairs. "The men were so glad to see a child," she says. "So many missed their children they had left at home."
During the Second World War, Miss Scott began volunteering at The Johns Hopkins Hospital to help the overworked nurses on the floor. After eight months, however, gasoline rationing took its toll, and she no longer had enough fuel to drive to work. She didn't let that deter her from her mission of helping others, and began walking to Union Memorial Hospital to provide care instead.
Today, Miss Scott's commitment to providing care takes another form-- financial support for nurses of the future. Her scholarship supports Hopkins nurses with a dedication to public health who are enrolled in the joint MSN/MPH program. "It's so important that nurses receive some training in public health too," she notes. "Then they can go anywhere in the world to provide help."
And what does Miss Scott hope to accomplish through her scholarship funding? "We need nurses terribly. Hopkins nurses are so well trained, it's a great pleasure for me to think of them working with patients."
