Debbie Ann Cannon Freece was born on February 27, 1952 in Dayton, Ohio. After several moves, her family settled in Grove City, Ohio when she was in the third grade, and it was there that she grew up. She worked at the Monterrey nursing home in Grove City as a nursing aide’s assistant, feeding and visiting with patients, as well as in the cafe at the soda fountain. She became a paid aide, but left to earn higher wages at L and K restaurant and Lazarus Westland in order to earn money for college. Her sister, ten years older and a nurse, said that a baccalaureate degree was essential.
Entering OSU School of Nursing in 1970, Debbie was active in Torch Club (a service club) and Sigma Theta Tau. She remembers the rigorous clinical instruction she received from Cheryl Bayer, the detailed elective in IV therapy taught by Leona Mourad, and the anatomy and physiology course that included cadaver work. She liked all her clinical rotations and remembers the many written papers required. Imogene King was dean at that time.
Upon graduation in 1974 Debbie chose long term care as her practice focus, and was on the nursing staff at Arlington Court, in Upper Arlington, Ohio for five years. Six months after she was hired as a staff nurse, she became Active Nursing Director, and then was appointed Director. Lillian Web, a former army nurse on the staff, mentored Debbie during her transition to staff nurse.
In 1979 Debbie received a federal traineeship, which allowed her to obtain her Master of Science degree with a federal nursing traineeship. She graduated in 1980 with a masters in nursing administration and education. A course on “high level wellness” taught by Edna Menke required reading far beyond nursing’s focus, and Debbie credits it to broadening her thinking in many ways. Another course, requiring group work, was difficult, given the different personalities involved, but she later realized that it was helpful in preparation for the “real world.”
After a brief time as a part time instructor at Capitol University, Debbie was hired by Geraldine Price, the Director of Nursing at the Ohio Department of Health, as Project Director to develop training centers for long term care facilities throughout Ohio. After her son was born (1982) and daughter (1985) Debbie reduced her time to teaching in one of the eight centers one day a week, which she did for many years. She found this role very satisfying in that she was validating the nurses and their work, enabling them to grow, and providing resources to support their practice.
Beginning as a new graduate, Debbie has always been active in the American Nurses Association (ANA) and, as a member of the Mid-Ohio District, served on various committees; she found the legislative committee especially interesting. In 1990 she was hired as Mid-Ohio’s Executive Director and, as Director, continued her legislative work. She, along with other nurses, worked for twelve years to get the advanced practice status for nurses in Ohio passed into law. Also as Director, she developed a continuing education program free of charge for Mid-Ohio members. These programs- continuing education and legislative initiatives - are two areas of which Debbie is especially proud to have fostered during her tenure as Director.
In the future Debbie predicts that the nurse’s role will change and adapt, but she feels that the primary role of direct care of the patient will always remain the centerpiece of nursing practice.
The Debbie Ann Cannon Freece, MS, RN, CNS Papers (5 linear feet, 6 MB) contains nursing artifacts, books, magazines and digital photographs.
Related collections within the Medical Heritage Center include the Nursing Oral Histories, specifically box 32, which contains an oral history given by Freece.
This collection is arranged in two series:
Series I: Artifacts (6 boxes) contains nursing artifacts, books and magazines. This series is arranged by item.
Series II: Digital Materials (4 jpg files) contains four digital photographs of Debbie Freece receiving when she was inducted into the Ohio Department of Aging’s Senior Citizens Hall of Fame. This series is arranged by item.
The collection is open to the public and is available for viewing in the Medical Heritage Center. Digital materials that are part of this collection are not available online. Physical materials do not circulate and must be used in the supervised reading room.
Restrictions, including copyright, may exist and some materials may be too fragile to photocopy or digitize. The MHC charges for duplication services, which must be performed by staff.
[Identification of item], Debbie Ann Cannon Freece, MS, RN, CNS Papers, SPEC.201601.FREECE, Medical Heritage Center, Health Sciences Library, The Ohio State University.