Paula Davis, RN – then known as Paula Katona – began her career at the old Princeton Hospital in June 1971. The hospital operated an on-site practical nursing school at the time, and many students lived in Lambert House, a residential building attached to the hospital.
Davis – herself a recent graduate of Sacred Heart Hospital School of Nursing in Allentown, Pa. – lived among the Princeton students. Her home was a two-bedroom suite with a shared bathroom in the middle. She lived on one side, Alyce Swartz, CRNA, was on the other. They became friends and later shared a hospital-owned house on Harris Road.
“Medicine was very different then,” Davis said.
How different? Today’s hospital, known as Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center (PMC), is fully equipped with state-of-the-art imaging technology. A CT scan entails a short trip down the hall. When Davis started, the nearest CT scan was 16 miles away in New Brunswick.
Hospital stays tended to be longer. Davis, a pediatrics nurse, would get to know her patients’ families fairly well. The hospital was small and had a tight-knit staff.
“We had a bowling league,” she recalled.
Davis spent 36 years in pediatrics, including 20 years as assistant nurse manager and six years as nurse manager of both pediatrics and the Princeton Center for Eating Disorders.
During that time, she completed her BSN at The College of New Jersey (then Trenton State College) and married Frederick Davis, a transporter at the hospital for more than 30 years. Their daughter later worked at a day care center for Princeton Health employees’ children at the old Merwick Care Center in Princeton. Their son worked at the hospital for about a year as well.
Fourteen years ago, Davis took the position of administrative coordinator in the Nurse Staffing Office. Yet pediatrics remained her passion, and Davis served many years as a school nurse at Princeton Charter School.
The side project began in the mid-1990s, when the hospital signed a contract with the charter school to provide trained nurses. The hospital contract expired several years ago, but Davis continued her work with the school until retiring that position last December.
Davis was looking forward to retiring from the hospital, too. Her first grandson – her son’s child – turned a year old in July. Davis’ daughter and son-in-law, who lived in the Boston area for the past decade, are now back closer to home. And she still stays in touch with friends she’s known since she first started at the hospital, such as Swartz (her Harris Road housemate) and Laura Kelly, RN, who retired earlier this year from pre-admission testing.
Davis continued working at PMC until July, in large part to reach the 50-year milestone at a place that was such an important part of her life.
“Paula has long been a respected nursing leader and she will be missed greatly,” said Karyn Book, MSN, RN, assistant vice president, associate chief nursing officer. “Her positive attitude and dedication to Princeton shines through each and every day.”