Red Cross Director Unflappable at Helm : Nursing Skills Help Rotherham Personify Spirit

For many people, the American Red Cross invokes scenes of earthquakes, mud slides, fires and floods. But beyond disaster relief, the Red Cross human services programs touch millions of lives daily.

In San Diego, Donita Rotherham runs the ship. Precise, thoughtful, unflappable, she’s just the sort you’d want at the helm when scudding through rough seas.

“I really love my work. I’ve enjoyed all my nursing jobs, but there’s something special about Red Cross,” she said. Recently selected the 1986 Distinguished Alumna (nursing, 1971) from San Diego State University’s College of Human Services, Rotherham serves as executive director of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Chapter of the American Red Cross.

“She’s the first nurse in the country to hold this position,” said Jimmy L. Nichols, administrative operations analyst at the College of Human Services. “That’s a distinctive honor.”

Along with seven other alumni, Rotherham was recognized May 24 at the ninth annual SDSU Awards Gala at the U.S. Grant Hotel.

“I’m really excited about this!” Rotherham said. “It’s great for San Diego State to be doing this, recognizing their students. And it’s great for the Red Cross. The majority of my opportunities have come because I’ve worked for Red Cross.”

Despite whizzing cross-county and nationwide to attend meetings, run training sessions or complete grant proposals, Rotherham exudes an aura of calm, a sense of order. Her multifaceted administrative skills stem from 24 years of experience in nursing and executive level management.

In her tenure at Red Cross, Rotherham has spearheaded a range of innovative programs. Three key programs--her “pride and joy”--are WHEELS (a transportation service); the Oceanside- Carlsbad Community Clinic, and the Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Food Program.

Early on, Rotherham recognized the transportation problems of many San Diego residents.

“WHEELS is a very special program, one of the most rewarding,” Rotherham said. It provides rides for frail elderly and disabled to doctors’ appointments, church and social events. Most riders are in wheelchairs, on walkers or crutches.

“I had not been out in the community for two years, until I discovered WHEELS,” one client wrote.

“We’re almost 100% booked every day,” Rotherham said. “We project that we’ll be doing 90,000 trips this fiscal year.

“Clients call a day ahead and say, ‘I need to go to the doctor at 10:30 tomorrow morning.’

“Most of the physicians and medical centers are very cooperative. They’re just wonderful about timing appointments and helping us get the people out as quickly as possible.”

Rotherham hopes to computerize the complex schedule of vans and riders. Through networking with smaller agencies, WHEELS offers a coordinated transportation service agency that makes optimal use of all available vehicles countywide.

“Our drivers go through extensive training,” she said. “We have first aid, CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and empathy training in which we give them the experience of what it’s like to be disabled. They use wheelchairs or walkers and hear from actual WHEELS riders who describe their specific needs: ‘I have difficulty bending forward,’ one might say. ‘If you offer me your arm, I can get into the vehicle.’ The natural instinct is to take hold of the person.”

Rotherham’s second major program focuses on health. A door-to-door survey affirmed her conviction that a clinic was needed to provide primary medical care, regardless of income. The Oceanside-Carlsbad Community Clinic, opened in 1972, provided medical care for people with no private insurance or area doctor. Rotherham, one of its founders, still presides over the board.

At first the clinic was open only in the evenings, with volunteer doctors, nurses and staff dispensing medical care. Today the facility, now on Cassidy Street in Oceanside, includes a pharmacy and lab, and handles 1,200 to 1,500 pediatric, adult and elderly patients monthly. The clinic provides extensive family planning and prenatal education, a pediatrics clinic and general adult medical care.

“Anyone is eligible for the clinic, but we do use a sliding fee schedule based on ability to pay,” Rotherham said.

The clinic also serves as a site for the Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Food Program, Rotherham’s third major program. Red Cross runs the largest such program in San Diego County.

Each month, more than 4,000 people with nutritional problems receive vouchers to purchase high-protein, high-vitamin, high-iron foods: cheese, eggs, milk and infant formulas, juice and nutritional cereals.

“The No. 1 person we want to serve is the pregnant or lactating mother,” Rotherham said. “Because, of course, better nutrition during pregnancy results in better fetal development.” The program includes infants, children to age 4, and low-income families.

Along with the vouchers, the program offers classes in cooking, nutrition, grocery shopping and reading labels to get the best value for money spent. The bilingual, bicultural staff tailors all information to the clients’ culture and language whether it be Laotian, Cambodian, Vietnamese or Spanish. For example, a qualified Thai instructor, familiar with the background of her students, would instruct Thai women.

“How you view your pregnancy is determined by your culture,” Rotherham said. “In many cultures, pregnancy is viewed as a natural process. Doctors are people one sees when ill.”

Rotherham is always on the go. Executive director of Red Cross since 1983, she heads a staff of 120 in 16 offices around the two counties. Her job also includes activities with the national organization and developing funding sources and programs.

Grace La Monica, an SDSU professor in community health nursing, said, “Bring up a subject with her and she immediately visualizes how to implement it. She seizes an idea and runs with it,” as in Rotherham’s development of the health fair concept. “She puts in long hours. She’s not satisfied with just doing the job. She wants to do more, yet she’s accessible and manages her time well.”

Originally trained in maternal and child care, Rotherham worked at Tri-City Hospital in Oceanside after moving to San Diego County from Lincoln, Neb.

“I began volunteering for the Red Cross while I was at San Diego State,” she said. “It was a wonderful experience. I really saw nursing moving into an educational and preventative role. That was an eye opener for me, because I had always done hospital nursing.”

Rotherham began teaching mother and baby care classes as a Red Cross volunteer. After graduating with honors in 1971 from SDSU with a degree in nursing (she later earned a master’s degree in community nursing), Rotherham’s skills and background dovetailed in a job at Red Cross Nursing and Health Services, first as assistant director, then as director, a position she held until 1983.

The move to management posed no problems. “I found the transition easy. Nursing is a fantastic training program for moving into mangement,” she said. “In nursing, you learn to manage patient care, to work with people as a team--doctors, pharmacists and nutritionist, the whole group of health professionals.

“As charge nurse or team leader you have a responsibility for supervising and taking on a leadership/management role. And with the nursing process, you gather data, choose from alternatives, implement the plan, then evaluate, and maybe start all over with the process. You really learn problem solving, and those are the basics of management.”

When disaster flares, the Red Cross traditionally marshals its forces. During San Diego’s 1978 PSA plane crash, Rotherham, as director of Red Cross nursing, was responsible for support services and a shelter area for victims’ families, area residents, firefighters and police officers working at the scene in the 90-degree heat. An Associated Press photograph flashed around the country shows Rotherham comforting a young girl who lived in North Park, scene of the crash.

American Red Cross disaster preparation is twofold: training people to assist others, and to survive themselves.

“We recruit and train volunteers locally and nationally,” Rotherham said. With close to 3,000 American Red Cross chapters nationwide, “Training is standardized across the country so San Diego volunteers could go anywhere needed across the country. . . . We respond to everything from single disasters to very major disasters.”

Locally, Red Cross came to the aid of victims of fires like the Normal Heights fire last summer, the downtown Keystone Hotel fire over Christmas, and the 300 to 500 residential fires that occur in the area annually.

Disaster preparedness is a second emphasis.

“We suggest that people be able to be self-reliant for 72 hours in the event of a disaster,” said Rotherham, suggesting that individuals know the location of gas and water shut-offs and have canned goods, a portable radio and batteries on hand. Families should plan a meeting place and a message system for emergencies.

“People should get a metal strip and bolt the hot water heater to the wall so that, in an earthquake, it won’t fall over and break.”

Red Cross is supported by United Way, private individuals, other agencies, grants and, recently, a direct mail campaign.

There are 8,000 Red Cross volunteers serving the two counties in many capacities.

“People volunteer three times a week; some, once a year. Some help at our health fairs, which may number five each year,” Rotherham said. “Volunteerism is alive and well and growing.”

Clearly, SDSU is proud of its graduate.

“Donita Rotherham personifies the spirit of service which the college tries to instill in its faculty and students,” said Peter C. Dual, dean of the College of Human Services.