Interview of Deborah Arms by Debbie Freece

Interview conducted at The Ohio State University Medical Heritage Center, Columbus, Ohio.The media can be accessed here: http://streaming.osu.edu/knowledgebank/OralHistory/20160321_Arms_Deborah.mp4In this interview, Deborah Arms describes her career in nursing, which has spanned more than four decades and involved a number of specialty areas as well as teaching. Arms, who earned her bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from OSU, started in 1974 after her first graduation as a second-shift charge nurse at a state hospital for the developmentally disabled. She continued in this specialty, in positions for the state Department of Health and OSU's Nisonger Center. After receiving her Ph.D in 1987, she was hired as the director of women's health at Mount Carmel Medical Hospital. She then served as director of program services for the Ohio Nurses Association, lobbying state lawmakers to pass legislation to improve nursing in a number of areas. She then returned to the state Department of Health in a much larger role, helping develop a state-wide Pandemic Influenza Plan and expand the newborn screening panel, among other initiatives. Along the way, she has served as an adjunct faculty member at several universities