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Duke University Medical Center
VOLUME 24, NUMBER 26
JULY 1,1977
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
H
In '31, She Was the Only Teacher
Of Art and Science of Nursing
TALKtNC OVER OLD TIMES—From left, Lela Marr Dunning of Kennebunk, Maine,
Anne Henshaw Gardiner of Alexandria, Va., and Marie McAdams Parrish of Ft.
Lauderdale, Fla., enjoy a chat at the School of Nursing's alumni reunion. Gardiner
taught all the courses in the School of Nursing when Dunning and Parrish were
students in the class of 1937. (Photo bylna Fried)
By Ina Fried
When the first students enrolled in
the School of Nursing in January
1931, they had one teacher, Anne
Henshaw Gardiner.
"I made up the whole curriculum
and printed the first catalog,”
Gardiner, 87, recalled at the School of
Nursing's alumni reunion, June 17.
She taught 15-18 subjects a year,
including anatomy, physiology,
bacteriology, sociology and
chemistry. Even when physicians
lectured on their specialties, she did
all the quizzing, made up the exams
and graded all the papers until the
eruroilment grew too large for one
person to handle.
Gardiner, assistant professor of
nursing here from 1930-41, was not
an easy teacher.
What She Ought To Know
"I wanted the student to know
New Book for Real-life Health Practitioners
While medical practice for the
television doctor often includes
treating exotic diseases and
performing last-minute, life-saving
surgery, real-life physicians may
hear more complaints about
alcoholism, insomnia, headaches,
hypertension and weight gain.
Because these problems have
defied solution for so long, most
medical schools until recently have
tended to skim over them in their
teaching.
Now, in an effort to help
physicians and other health
practitioners keep abreast of some
promising new treatments for
common maladies, two members of
the Department of Psychiatry here
have compiled the first
comprehensive guide on the subject
of behavioral therapy.
Just Released
The book is Behavioral Approaches
to Medical Treatment, and the editors
£U« Drs. Redford B. Williams Jr. and
W. Doyle Gentry.
Williams is associate professor of
psychiatry and assistant professor of
medicine, and Gentry is professor of
medical psychology.
Ballinger Publishing Co. of
Cambridge, Mass., released their
252-page volume this month.
Fourth of July
Get out your barbecue grill and
your swimsuit or just plan to sleep
late Monday, July 4.
Independence Day is an official
university and medical center
holiday.
It contains 16 chapters by
recognized authorities on how
behavioral science and behavioral
therapy have been applied to treat
chronic asthma, insomnia, headache.
Type A (or coronary-prone) behavior
patterns, heart rate irregularities,
obesity and cigarette smoking.
Other subjects discussed include
bed wetting, toilet training, chronic
pain, alcoholism, the patient's failure
to follow medical advice and such
physical disorders as vomiting,
diarrhea and epilepsy..
Relief of Distress
"In many instances, recent
research has provided clear evidence
that newly developed behavioral
treatment approaches are capable of
providing significant relief of
distressing symptoms associated
with these disorders," the editors
wrote in their preface.
"It is our intention that upon
coinpletion of this book the reader
should not only be able to answer
confidently patients' questions
about these behavioral treatment
techniques, but also will have taken
the first step toward their clinical
application in a patient care setting."
Among the contributors to the
book are Dr. A. Barney Alexander,
head of the Psychophysiology
Laboratory at the National Asthma
Center in Denver; Edward B.
Blanchard, professor of psychology
at the University of Tennessee; Dr.
John Paul Brady, chairman of
psychiatry at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine;
and Dr. Bernard T. Engel, chief of
psychophysiology and behavioral
sciences at the National Iristitute of
Aging's Gerontology Research
Center.
Contributors from Duke are the
editors; Dr. Patrick A. Boudewyns,
associate professor of medical
psychology; Dr. James E. Byassee, a
clinical associate in medical
psychology; and Guillermo A. A.
Bemal, a doctoral candidate at the
University of South Carolina and
assistant director of Duke Hospital's
Clinical Biofeedback Laboratory.
what I thought she ought to know in
preparation for her life's work," she
said. "1 kno\y some students were
afraid of me but would die for me
now. As they grew older they
realized what I was trying to do."
When some of her students
objected to standing to answer her
questions, "I told them if you know a
thing, you might stumble because
you're embarrassed standing up but
your brain doesn't stop working.
"I tried to be very sure of what I
was doing and didn't let up if I knew
it was the right thing to do," she
said. "To me a good nurse is first a
fine person. If I knew something
suspicious was going on. I'd tell
them. But they knew I'd go to bat for
them any time."
"My plea has always been for the
patient," she said. "Nursing is both
an art and a science. Too often we
come to be technicians instead of
responding to what the patient
wants and needs."
Methods Successful
The success of Gardiner's methods
was evident with the class of 1937,
which boasted 11 of its 25 members
at the 40th class reunion. Two
members of the class made averages
of 95 or above on the State Board of
Nursing examinations. That was the
first time anyone had scored that
high in the whole state, Gardiner
remembers, and it gave the school "a
(Continued on page 4)
OUT OF THE DOGHOUSE—And into the children's hands. Large toyboxes in the
urolo^ and orthopaedics clinics add to the new play program there. Children
enjoying the toys are (from left) Chan Bryant, 11, and Charla Bryant, 9, of Sanford;
Chalanda Mitchiner, 7, of Durham; and Kimberly Riley, 6, of Durham, sitting on the
knee of Stanley (Pedro) Seagroves, who built the lx)xes. Standing behind are the
painters James Medlin (left) and Thelle Murray. See p. 2 for the story. (Photo by Ina
Fried)