Sandra Cornett

A lifelong love for Ohio State, a lifetime commitment to nursing

by Kelsey Bonacci

Sandra “Sandy” (Fisher) Cornett, PhD, RN, (’65, ’70 MS, ’81 PhD) wanted to be a nurse since she was 6, and during her childhood read all of the Cherry Ames: Student Nurse books. A field trip to a hospital when she was 12 in the 1950s sealed the deal for her: polio was prevalent, and she was moved by the sight of many very sick patients in iron lungs.

Her passion for service continues to this day. People, she says, are her inspiration. “The people I meet are just fantastic and wonderful. They keep me going. I feel like I need to continue to serve as long as I can.” She volunteers regularly in the Wexner Medical Center’s  patient education resource area and co-planned her class’ 55-year virtual reunion this fall. Service, to Sandy, means supporting her college, too. She contributes to several initiatives at the college such as student support funds and the new Newton Hall renovations. “I have left an endowment for the college in my will,” Sandy said, so that her support can go on. She has also established an endowment to support health literacy.

Sandy reflects fondly on the friendly camaraderie she experienced as an undergraduate living in Neil Hall, now known as the Younkin Success Center. “The culture of nursing really came alive because you lived together,” Sandy recalled. “We’d share stories, trials, tribulations and joys.”

She also loved the traditions. Students would sing songs together in Neil Hall while they ate, and just before graduation when seniors were given the honor of wearing a white uniform, they would participate in the “tearing of the blues.” Sandy explained, “We would take our blue uniforms and tear them up, and we would string the blues torn up into a rope from Neil Hall to Hamilton Hall.”

Sandy returned to Ohio State to earn a master’s degree in nursing in 1970 and a doctorate in adult education in 1981. She taught several classes at the college and then in North Carolina, where she also helped set up continuing education for cardiac care nurses. She helped open one of the country’s first coronary care units in North Carolina and was then recruited to California as a head nurse to do the same. Next, Sandy spent 21 years as a patient education coordinator with the Wexner Medical Center. She then directed health literacy education programs for health professionals throughout Ohio for 14 years within Ohio State’s Area Health Education Center until she retired in 2014.

Her profound love for nursing is everlasting. As Sandy explains, “There is a uniqueness in nursing that you can’t find [elsewhere]. There’s a certain language that we speak as nurses, a certain passion we have as nurses, a certain understanding about humanity. I think that is what drives me.”