Interview with Mariah Snyder

Mariah Snyder was born in Austin, MN, grew up in Grand Meadow, MN, and attended the College of Saint Teresa in Winona, MN where she obtained her BSN in 1960. After working at Saint Mary’s hospital in Rochester, MN as a surgical and orthopedic staff nurse, she pursued her master’s degree in nursing with a specialty in adult health at the University of Pennsylvania in 1972. She taught at Vanderbilt University and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire before arriving at the University of Minnesota in 1975, where she taught and also earned her Ph.D. in education in 1978. Her doctoral research involved observational research of nursing student collaboration. Later, she did research in stress inventory, intracranial pressure, and gerontology. She was helped establish the doctoral program in nursing in 1982 at the University, furthering an emphasis on nursing research. She was also involved in establishing the gerontology nurse practitioner program. She retired from the faculty in the 2000s.Snyder begins by briefly describing her early life, education, and entrance into nursing. She describes her years as a staff nurse in surgery and orthopedics at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, MN. Within this topic, she discusses new technology in the hospital, doctor/nurse relationships, nurse training, and international nurse exchanges. She then describes her return to graduate school, for her masters at the University of Pennsylvania. She explores her reasons for going out of state, compares nursing programs, and discusses her training. Snyder describes her teaching positions at Vanderbilt University, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and then her eventual arrival at the University of Minnesota where she taught and pursued a PhD in education. Framed within her time in the Nursing School at Minnesota, she explores: the Nursing School at Powell Hall, the changing culture of nursing, grants, regional coordination of nursing, the relationship between diploma and baccalaureate programs, the building of Unit F, the push for a doctoral program in nursing the differences between the DNP and the DNS, the Ph.D. program’s reception within the school of nursing, full membership appointments, Nursing School leadership, and long range planning in the nursing school. She describes her research and then discusses the relationship of the Nursing School with other segments of the University. She goes on to discuss different nursing organizations, minority recruitment, and the Nursing School’s relationship with the state legislature. Finally, she discusses her role in athletics at the University, and it’s relationship to women and status in nursing