Press Release

Retired Nurse Recaps Burgess Progress

As Burgess Health Center employees celebrate National Hospital Week May 11-17 with special events and luncheons, they will miss the presence of a long-time healthcare professional.

Barb Dahl retired last December after 44 years of dedicated service to Burgess and another 15 yeas at Onawa's earlier community hospital.

After she graduated from Whiting High School, Dahl earned her nursing diploma from Vanderbilt University in 1948. Back then, she says, nurses were known as "the three S’s – Slaves, Servants and Saints. They wore white stockings, white "nurses" shoes and caps.
When Dahl started work at Onawa's first hospital in 1948 she earned a whopping $1 an hour.

During National Hospital Week, no one can verify the advancements of health care in Onawa better than Dahl. When she started at Burgess in 1963, x-ray machines were the norm for imaging. Today Burgess has a 16-slice CT scanner, 4D ultrasound, mobile PET/CT and MRI scanners and the newest in breast cancer screening  digital mammography.

Today, Burgess also offers sophisticated lab equipment, phone paging systems and flat screen TVs in every patient room  luxuries people could only dream about decades ago.

In Dahl's early days at Burgess Dr. John Garred, Sr. used to operate on abdomens through open incisions. Today he and Dr. John Garred, Jr. depend primarily on laparoscopic technology for abdominal surgery.

Back then there was a handful of physicians. Today there are some 50 physicians representing 20 specialties on the medical staff of Burgess. Dahl also watched the hospital expand several times.

"I enjoyed every minute of my career as a nurse and working at Burgess for the past 44 years," Dahl says. "Over the years I've seen many changes and advancements at Burgess, in nursing and medicine.

"Today patients received better care with all the technology," she adds. "I think our hospital is so grand now you would think it's sitting in a major city. Isn't it wonderful that people can receive the same care here as in the larger metro areas?"

And the advancements have paid off, Dahl says. "People are living longer and healthier today, and while they're living, they're enjoying a better life because they are healthier."

Dahl also appreciated Burgess' intense focus on customer service before she retired.

"I hear good reports about the hospital," she says. "I also think it's wonderful that they go out and teach about diabetes, and get patients involved in educating others.

Over the years Dahl also used her nursing skills in traveling to Africa on medical missions.
"I helped in surgeries, and set up clinics in the bush. We did everything."

Why did she work so many years?

"I was blessed with good health and lots of energy," says the Burgess retiree. "After my husband died I continued to work because I enjoyed it. I loved being a nurse."