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Duke Hospital, InterCom
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How many friends have we lost for Duke this way?
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Cotnet
A recent grant to Duke University
by Tiie Richardson Foundation for
the purpose of surveying the need
for training more Negro practical
nurses in North Carolina has neces
sitated visits to the majority of North
Carolina hospitals. In the visits made
so far, it has been most interesting to
observe the shifting pattern of nurs
ing service staffing and the role of
the trained practical nurse in hospi
tal nursing—more about this in a
later column.
Of more general interest is the tre
mendous change in North Carolina
hospitals resulting from the addition
of almost 2000 non-federal beds since
1951. When seen in rapid succession,
the impact of so many modernized
old hospitals and brand new ones is
somewhat startling.
It is also of great interest to see in
what large numbers well-qualified
young physicians have been attracted
by these modern hospital plants to
practice in smaller communities. After
almost 15 years lapse in the general
addition of young physicians to the
state’s medical complement, the sud
den influx of post-war trained spe
cialists is rapidly placing major re
sponsibility for medical care in the
hands of a new generation of skilled
men and women.
It is a great satisfaction to see what
an important part is being played by
Duke-trained people. Doctors, nurses,
administrators, record librarians, tech
nicians, practical nurses, physical
therapists, dietitians, anesthetists; the
whole gamut of training programs
here are to be found in some measure
everywhere.
The rapid addition of so many hos
pitals and hospital beds has not been
accomplished without creating prob
lems in occupancy and financing in
many locations, but the combination
of adequately equipped modern hos
pitals and well-distributed skilled
health personnel promise greatly im
proved health care for all North
Carolinians.
It goes without saying that the
Aussie Nurses
Praise Hospitality
Three Australian nurses are pres
ently at Duke Hospital for six months
in the Exchange Visitor Program
tJirough the spon.sorship of the Inter
national Council of Nurses and the
auspices of the American Nurses As
sociation and Australian Nursing
Federation. They are Misses Marga
ret Slattery, and Marjorie Finn, Vic
toria, and Miss Jacqueline Magee,
Kulin.
wider range of skilled care available
to people in smaller communities
means that the large medical centers,
like Duke, must constantly push for
ward in the development of services
beyond the average available else
where. That is one of our important
functions. To the degree that we ac
complish it, we will eqxial or better
the record of our first 24 years of
leadership.—Ross Forter.
Miss Magee arrived at Duke Octo
ber 24, 1954. Misses Slattery and
Fimi arrived here January 14 having
just completed six months’ experience
at Mass. General Hospital in Boston.
What interests them most? “We
have been amazed by your wondrous
varigated automobiles, tlie highways,
skyways, and underpasses on which
you drive them; by the enormous pop
corn machines, almost as big a money
catcher as the movie houses in which
one finds them; by the deep freezes so
stocked with goods from every season
of the year; and by the grand hospi
tality and kindnesses shown to foreign
exchange graduate nurses.”
In addition to obtaining clinical
nursing experience, provision is made
for participation in the ward educa
tional program, attendance at lectures
in their special fields of interest, and
participation in the in-service train
ing program. They are permitted to
receive a small stipend in addition to
living accommodations.—Gertrude
Elliott.