Special to the American Press 

Linda Dalgleish has helped people all her life — and along the way, has stopped to learn more and better ways to do it.

Dalgleish, 72, retires this month after working 50 years as a nurse in a remarkable number of positions and disciplines within the nursing community.

She is completing her career as a nurse practitioner with the Imperial Calcasieu Human Service Authority’s behavioral health services office in Jennings.

That’s only part of her half-century of service — both in Southwest Louisiana and points all over the nation.

Over the years, Dalgleish has worked as:

• ER nurse.
• Flight nurse.
• Public health nurse and director.
• Occupational health nurse and manager.
• Employee assistance program (EAP) manager.
• Nurse case manager for the U.S. Army.
• Public health nurse for an Army post.
• Psychiatric nurse practitioner.
• Drug-treatment nurse practitioner.

In addition to her work duties, Dalgleish kept a personal commitment to keep learning all the way.

Her education has ranged from earning her BSN in her 20s to going back to school in her late 50s — for master’s degree as a psychiatric nurse practitioner from McNeese State University.

Fresh out of Alverno College in Wisconsin with a nursing degree, she was hired as a ward nurse at Milwaukee County’s charity hospital, then moved to the emergency room.

She was then part of the pioneer class of nurses trained to be members of the flight team of Milwaukee’s first air-medic unit.

She trained about National Guard helicopters, learning how to work within such tight confines — and learning how to help the pilot spot wires, trees, limbs and other obstacles that might interfere with flights.
She then graduated from Johns Hopkins University’s College of International Public Health in 1988 as one of six nurses in a class of 148 international doctors.

After completing her master’s program, Dalgleish headed west to work for the Utah Department of Public Health. Her many on-the-job interactions included befriending the midwife of a polygamous community that was suspicious of outsiders. That connection proved crucial during a hepatitis outbreak, when Dalgleish had earned trust and the lone person from “the government” allowed inside the community to help.

As the 1990s arrived, Dalgleish’s efforts led to her being named public health department director of Tooele County, Utah — a service area larger than the five-parish Southwest Louisiana region. She was the first woman to hold the position.

From there, she joined Intermountain Healthcare, where she worked on the team that put together the first employee assistance program (EAP) for the company. At the same time, more personal learning continued; she completed certifications as an occupational health manager.

In the meantime, husband Charles Dalgleish — now a Chennault International Airport commissioner, then an Army Reserve veteran — was called back to active in 2005 at age 55. That led to a “commuter marriage” for nearly two years. Linda Dalgleish solved that with another career move. She took early retirement from the healthcare company on a Friday and the following Monday, she went to work for the Army.

Her new job was a nurse case manager at Fort Carson, Colorado, helping injured soldiers who returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The troubled sector she served became known, sadly, as the “Murder Battalion” because of a series of tragic homicides committed by battalion members after their return from Iraq.

In the search for answers about postwar trauma and violence, Dalgleish took part in some of the Army’s first efforts to study traumatic brain injuries and mental health issues among soldiers returning from combat units.

“When I started nursing, I was never really interested in mental health,” she said. “But through a lot of career choices, I was able to really see that unless you’re mentally healthy, you really cannot be healthy at all.”

The Dalgleishes later left Fort Carson for Fort Lee, Virginia, where she became Fort Lee’s public health nurse while her husband served until his retirement from the Army.

It was at that time that Dalgleish, now in her late 50s, decided to return to school to earn a master’s degree as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. She chose McNeese’s graduate program after evaluating multiple universities.

“I was very fortunate to be able to attend the McNeese psychiatric nurse practitioner program,” she said. She earned the additional degree in 2012, the year she turned 60.

After the untimely death of a colleague, Dalgleish went back to school yet again, now nearing age 70, in 2021 — to get certified to prescribe the opiate-addiction treatment drug Suboxone and to work with a drug treatment program. Her latest back-to-school effort expanded her knowledge from not just mental health clients, but drug treatment as well.

“I have loved my work as a psychiatric nurse practitioner for the last 12 years,” she said.

Now, she is retiring — after accumulating a resume, a road map, and a collection of degrees that are testament to a life-long achievement in clinics, consultations and classrooms.

The Imperial Calcasieu Human Services Authority, or ImCal HSA, provides behavioral health and developmental disabilities services to people in Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, and Jeff Davis parishes. To access services or learn more, visit imcalhsa.org, call 337-475-3100 or email info@imcalhsa.org.

CUTLINE FOR THREE-PHOTO COMBO:

Retiring nurse Linda Dalgleish, 72, has gone to school throughout her 50-year career to build her skill set. From left: earning her BSN in 1974, graduating from Johns Hopkins in 1988, and earning yet another degree from McNeese in 2012.