Nurse To Publish Book
On Sex in Health, Illness
COUNSELING FOR COUNSELORS—Uancy Fugate Woods, an assistant professor
of nursing at the medical center, has written a book entitled Human Sexuality in
Health and Illness which will be published in March by C.V. Mosby Co. of St. Louis.
The book, her first. Is to serve as a ready reference for health professionals so
that these people including nurses, social workers, physical therapists and physi
cians will know what to say to patients who conne to them for advice on a host of
sexual problems. (Photo by David Williamson)
By David Williamson \
When surgeons operated on the
wives of the President and Vice
President to remove breast tumors late
last year, newspapers, television and
radio brought these private matters to
world attention.
For most women, such publicity
would only compound an already sad
situation, adding embarrassment to
personal tragedy.
But Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Rockefeller and
the news media have indirectly done
American women a great service,
according to an authority on human
sexuality at the medical center.
The Breast Cancer Demonstration
Project here received more than 50 calls
a day from women concerned about
breast cancer after the news was
released,” said Nancy Fugate Woods,
an assistant professor of nursing who
will publish a book in March entitled
Human Sexuality in Health and Illness.
Mrs. Woods, whose book was a direct
result of a course she teaches to
undergraduates here each year. Is a firm
t>eliever in a rearranged adage, “What
you don’t know, can hurt you."
She feels that misinformation about
illness and how it affects sexuality can
only be conquered by a more open and
mature attitude in dealing with
problems that have been hushed up all
too frequently in the past.
"Women like Mrs. Ford and Happy
Rockefeller often serve as models for
the lay public, ’ she said. "When others
look at them and see that they still look
feminine and that their marriages didn't
disintegrate as a result of the
operations, they’re more willing to have
what could be life-saving
examinations. ’
And when mastectomies (the removal
of breasts) are necessary, she
maintains, women are less likely to
think of themselves as flawed or
incomplete.
In her book, which will be published
by the C.V. Mosby Co. of St. Louis, Mrs.
Woods attempts to help other nurses,
as well as social workers, physical
therapists and physicians know what to
say to patients who come to them for
advice on a host of sexual problems.
The first section, called The
Bio-Psycho-Social Nature of Sexuality,"
defines human sexual response
patterns throughout the life cycle from
Infancy and adolescence through
adulthood and aging.
"Oiir culture looks at sex between
aged people as bizarre for no real
reason," she maintains, "and even our
Social Security system discriminates
against them. Why should a couple in
the 70's who have found happiness
(Continued on page 4)
A trip to Africa is an adventure many
Americans wouldn’t even consider. And
my trip was certainly not without its
little annoyances—whether it's
furiously swatting tse-tse flies in a Land
Rover on a safari or wearing a big.
Innocent smile for the customs officials
at a border crossing.
'r’es, 1 saw a fabulous assortment of
wild animals in Botswana, and
horseback riding through the
mountains of Lesotho was absolutely
breathtaking, but the real purpose for
my journey, the study of surgery in
Johannesburg, South Africa, remains
the high point.
After talking with several of my
colleagues, including a resident in the
Department of Surgery at Duke who Is
from South Africa and a fellow student
who studied there last year, 1 settled
upon the University of the
Witwatersrand Medical School for a
clinical elective.
Language would be no major
problem, 1 heard only good things about
the surgery program there, and it would
make a great jumping off point to see a
bit of the rapidly vanishing African
wilderness and culture. In addition,
medical missionary friends in Zaire
would be within reach for a visit after
my formal study.
Arriving In Johannesburg alone in the
early hours of a wintery Sunday
morning, I found the city cold in more
ways than just its weather. But within a
few hours I had made contact with
medical students there who had been
acquainted with my friend at Duke who
had preceded me, and I was
overwhelmed by a warmth and
hospitality beyond what I could have
hoped for.
The General Hospital in
Johannesburg serves the European
population of the area, and is
structurally somewhat similar to most
American academic hospitals. Senior
staff and housestaff work together in
delivering patient care, with students
taking an even less active role than at
Duke. The unit I worked on has a large
women’s and a large men’s ward.
The move for privacy is not so
pervasive in the hospitals there,
however, and a ward is a single large
room with 30 to 40 beds. In some ways,
it seems to me, this is an advantage to
the patients, who may often get better
care and more close watching than with
our costly system of private and
semi-private rooms. Curtains could of
course be pulled between each bed for
examinations, ward procedures and
such.
Following my work in the General
Hospital, in downtown Johannesburg, I
shifted to a large
government-supported hospital several
miles outside the city, where I found the
greatest opportunities in gaining
practical clinical experience. It is called
Baragwanath, and serves the medical
needs of around a million black South
Africans who live in adjacent Soweto.
Every fifth day we were on intake for a
twenty-four hour period, and admitted
all acute surgical admissions, as well as
(Continued on page 3)
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VOLUME 22, NUMBER 5
JANUARY 31,1975
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Foreign Sojourn Brings Practice and Surprises
Student Reports on African Trip
(Editor 's Note: Russell J. Kilpatrick, a junior in the School of Medicine, spent several
months in Africa during the summer and autumn last year studying general surgery at
Witwatersrand Medical School in Johannesburg, South Africa, and in missionary clinics
in Zaire. The Asheboro, N.C., native, winner of the 1974 Wilburt C. Davison Travel
Scholarship and a travel award from the International College of Surgeons, prepared an
interesting report on his activities for the latter professional organization, arid an
abbreviated version of it is reprinted below.)
LEARNING HIS MEDICINE IN AFRICA—Russell J. Kilpatrick, examines a patient in a
rural clinic in Bulape. Zaire. His time in Africa not only taught him a lot about
medicine—It also awakened him to the immense social, economic and racial
problems yet to be overcome there. See page 3 for photos the future physician took
during some of his off-duty hours.