Fifty Years as a Nurse: A Legacy of Caring for Children 

“Nursing is one of the few professions where you become the eyes and ears of those who cannot speak for themselves."
– Gene McGowen.

For half a century, Gene has worked as a nurse, spending 45 of those years at Shriners Children’s Texas. He began his career in 1976 as a young man from Cleveland, Texas, who had grown up in a small town where opportunities were limited, and male nurses were almost unheard of.

Gene started as an orderly in high school, a role that allowed him to assist medical professionals with whatever they needed. After a friend encouraged him to attend nursing school, he began exploring the idea and felt pulled towards the work. Gene soon found his stride in critical care, gaining experience in the ICU, CCU, trauma and cardiovascular recovery. He worked wherever the sickest patients were because that was where he felt he could help the most. When he arrived at Shriners Children’s Texas in 1981, the mission immediately resonated with him.

“Knowing that a child could come here and receive care and the family did not have to worry about a bill was huge for me,” he said. “Some of these children were here for a year or more. They needed so much care. To know the family never had to worry meant everything.”

Although Gene worked primarily in the ICU, his career shifted when he became a flight nurse in the pediatric air medical transport program. For 18 years, he flew to Mexico, Central America, South America and across the United States to bring critically burned children back to Shriners Children’s Texas. It was demanding work, and he loved it.

“It is a different type of nursing because you are out of your hospital environment,” he said. “You are in a tight space with your team, and you must think fast. You must know what you are doing. To be able to transport these patients and give them the highest level of care made me feel like I was doing what the Good Lord was using me for.”

Gene was calm in the chaos. He understood that every time he stepped off a plane, he carried the hospital's reputation with him.

“Our team, I believe, became a walking, breathing representation of what Shriners Children’s Texas stands for. When you step out of that plane, you are representing the hospital. People are looking at what you say, what you do, how you say it, when you say it.”

Over the years, the patients never forgot him. Some send Christmas cards, while others invite him to weddings or graduations. Gene has even been stopped in a grocery store by a former patient who wanted to share how life had turned out.

“The families do not forget you,” Gene said. “These kids are at their lowest when you are caring for them. They are scared. Their families are scared. We must treat these children like they are our family. That is the mindset you must carry with you your whole career.”

Gene has always believed that children reveal what truly matters. Their priorities are simple and honest.

“They do not care what you drive, where you live, or what your title is,” he said. “All they care about is whether you are going to take care of them.”

After 50 years of nursing, Gene is slowly preparing to retire. He looks forward to spending time with his grandchildren and perhaps traveling to places like Italy or Seattle. Reflecting on his career, Gene is grateful for the mentors who shaped him, from his mother and his nursing instructors to the physicians he worked alongside early in his career. He watched Denton Cooley, M.D., founder of the Texas Heart Institute, perform heart surgery in the 1970s, and learned from "Red" Duke, M.D., the trauma surgeon who founded Life Flight.

Gene McGowen has given everything he has to this work. As his career comes to an end, he continues to pass his knowledge on to the next generation of nurses. He has been a preceptor for many years, guiding new nurses with the same patience that defined his own career. As Gene puts it, “It does not make sense to work somewhere for 50 years and keep that information to yourself. We are given to give.”