Dorothy Ray Scarbrough
Dorothy Ray Scarbrough, BSN, MSN, RNC, from Cottonwood, Ala., wanted to be an RN like her two aunts. Encouraged by her mother, she pursued a baccalaureate degree and a $500 scholarship made it possible for her to enter the first class of The University of Alabama School of Nursing. Here she met and married a former Marine, John W. Scarbrough (Bill), graduated with her BSN in 1954, and her MSN in 1960. For the next 15 years, Scarbrough was a UA faculty nursing instructor.
In 1969, she became director of a grant program to train Alabama long-term care staff in an innovative approach to caring for the memory impaired patient population; in one year the program expanded from the Tuscaloosa Veterans Administration Medical Center creating local and national workshops through traveling teaching teams. They taught 24-hour reality orientation techniques to staff caring for the growing number of cognitively impaired aging patients in both VA centers and community facilities. As director she planned and coordinated workshops for interdisciplinary staff training and developed training tools including three 16 mm films offered through VA Library Services. In a 10-year period, over 21,000 participants from different agencies attended the program workshops– a significant factor for a small grant program in Alabama– resulting in a positive national impact on long term care programs beyond the United States. Reality Orientation Training gradually became integrated into other training for many long term care nursing facilities.
Scarbrough’s final phase of her career began as a Nursing Supervisor for the Tuscaloosa VAMC in 1982 that transitioned into Associate Chief of Nursing for long term care where she managed Nursing Services for approximately 300 patients. Compassionate and innovative nursing care for the elderly and educational growth of all professional nurses were her passions.
Prior to her retirement in 1994, Scarbrough was awarded the Alabama State Nurses Association’s 1993 Outstanding Administrator Award. Other career milestones include being chosen by Alabama’s governor as a delegate to the 1971 White House Conference on Aging; authoring a chapter in a Gerontological Nursing textbook; helping write the Gerontological Nursing Practice Standards for the VA; being certified as the first ANA Gerontological Nurse in Alabama; being listed in the Marquis Who’s Who in America; and, in 2021, being featured in the Albert Marquis Millennium Publication honoring the legacies of professionals in the nation.
At the age of 85, Dorothy published I Am Still With You: Our Fight Against the Losses from Alzheimer and Dementia Diseases, a memoir of emotional losses and her personal experiences as her husband’s caregiver. Their marriage of 67 years included three daughters, Mary Jane, Lisa, and Tina, six grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.