Dorothy Scarbrough is renowned as a nursing educator and a consultant focused on care of patients with memory disorders with a career spanning more than forty years.
TUSCALOOSA, AL, February 19, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Dorothy Scarbrough with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Ms. Scarbrough celebrates many years' experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Ms. Scarbrough is renowned as a nursing educator and a consultant focused on care of patients with memory disorders with a career spanning more than forty years. When only age nine, she unfortunately lost her father in an accident. After which her mother insisted that she and her siblings pursue a college education. Inspired by two aunts who worked as nurses she got a scholarship to become a nurse and earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of Alabama in 1954 and a Master of Science in nursing in 1960. As a licensed registered nurse she became a certified gerontological nurse in 1983.
In 1954, Mrs. Scarbrough began her career as nursing instructor at the University of Alabama collegiate School of Nursing. Concurrently she worked week-ends as a staff nurse to gain skills and experience until 1959 when a master's of Science degree was earned. She returned to the University's School of Nursing as an assistant professor. In 1969, the VA Medical Center in Tuscaloosa hired Ms. Scarbrough as Director of The Reality Orientation Training Program for staff working with confused elderly patients. Later in 1973-1975, through a collaborative process, audiovisual aids were completed including two 16 mm training films and several R.O. self-teaching education materials. These significantly changed the staff training resources. The Tuscaloosa staff held the first week-long course in July, 1969 and the future classes filled until 1982.
Passionate about meeting the demand for teaching other caregivers the technics of Reality Orientation, Ms. Scarbrough established an innovative workshop model providing traveling teaching teams to conduct on-site multidisciplinary workshops to staff of agencies in other states. By consulting with other VA centers, private and non-profit nursing homes and Area Agencies on Aging, many workshops resulted and, Hillhaven Foundation and the Texas Association of Homes for the Aging committed to training all staff. This support begin changing the care for disoriented patients within the United States. Workshops were held in thirty-six states and Canada. Statistics from 1969 to1982 indicate that more than twenty thousand were trained not including the ripple effect. In 1982, Ms. Scarbrough became the VA medical center's nursing supervisor for the geriatric units until 1987 when she advanced to associate chief nurse of extended care adding the VA 120 bed nursing home unit. She retired in 1994.
Ms. Scarbrough has published in professional journals, is chapter author for the first gerontological nursing textbook and, in 2017, published "I Am Still with You: Our Fight against the Losses from Alzheimer's and Dementia Diseases:" written about her personal journey as a dementia caregiver for her husband of sixty-seven years. Ms. Scarbrough carries the torch for all elderly confused who are in need of more treatment choices. As an advocate for the elderly, the governor of Alabama appointed her as delegate at the 1971 White House Conference on Aging in Washington, D.C. She is the recipient of a 1974 Meritorious Service Award from the Texas Association of Homes for the Aging and a 1993 Outstanding Nurse Administrator Award from the Alabama State Nurses Association. From 1975-1977, she sat on the advisory committee of the Region IV nationwide Education Center of Raleigh, and became actively involved with many VA regional initiatives for the Aging Veteran. VA central office preselected her as one of twenty-four nurses to design strategies for the VA system to implement the ANA standards of gerontological nursing practice for dementia units. In 1982-1983, she was an invited lecturer to the International Center for the Disabled in New York and the New Brunswick Health Department in Canada and formed a support group for caregivers of dementia patients locally.
Ms. Scarbrough and her husband, John, a contractor known as "The House Doctor', have three special daughters who have pursued careers in Occupational Therapy and Special Education and six grandchildren who have college degrees in their chosen fields.
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