Wondering about Future of Hospitals? Dial for Answer
Is there a question on your mind that you'd like
to ask about the new Duke Hospital Nor^?
Or, do^ou wonder what the plan is for parts of
the existing hospital when the new one opens?
Maybe there are other questions about the
future around here that you'd like'to have an
answer to.
Well, the firstNStep in getting an answer to your
question is as ^mple as dialing the telephone.
And that's just what to do.
Di^ Future LINE
The number is'286-4657. The project is called
FUTURE LINE. And here's the way it works:
Anyone having a question to pose may dial that
number. The phone will be answered by a
recorded voice which will instruct the caller what
to do. Callers will be invited to leave their names
and telephone ntunbers so someone can call back.
However, questions that are called in
anonymously will not be ignored. They will be
collected, replies will be prepared to them and the
questions md answers will be published.
Answer Concems
Dr. 'R.R. Robinson, associate vice president for
health affairs and chief executive offirer of Duke
Hospital, sees FUTURE LINE as a direct answer to
some concems voiced by employees in the
Employee Survey earlier this year.
"Basically 60 per cent of our employees said they
were dissatisfied with the medical centei^s efforts.,
to keep them informed," Robinson said, referring
to the survey report that was published in the
Aug. 5 Intercom.
Subsequently, ari informal survey of 40
employees conducted by Dr. Ann Britt, director of
the Department of Human Resources
Development, disclosed that 35 of them felt they
knew too littfe about the Duke Hospital North
project to respond to a series of questions about it.
"Nothing is taking greater priority with us right
now than employee commuiucations," Robinson
said, "arid I hope that 286-4657 to FUTURE LINE
will be well used."
Intercom
Duke University Medical Center
VOLUME 24, NUMBER 38
SEPTEMBER 23,1977
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Diverse Students Share Common Qualities
By David Williamson
"I think the feeling of doing
something worthwhile is the main
reason I decided to go into
medicine," said Laurie Dunn of
Laurinburg, N.C.
"If you can help someone to
maintain or regain their health, then
there should be a lot of satisfaction in
that — the kind of satisfaction that
can last a lifetime."
Dunn is one of 114 students from
around the country who just began
their first year in the School of
Medicine. To say she is typical of her
classmates, however, is only partly
true.
Variety of Backgrounds
"The freshmen represent a wide
variety of educational, economic,
cultural and ethnic backgrounds,"
according to Dr. Suydam Osterhout,
associate dean for admissions.
"What these young people do have
in common is excellence and a desire
to become outstanding physicians,"
he said, citing Laurie Dunn as an
example.
Dunn is a 1977 honors graduate of
Davidson College, and' she was
among the first class of women to
complete four years at the formerly
all-male institution. She was an
officer in the pre-medical society and
elected member of Omega Delta
Kappa, an organization recognizing
leadership and academic
achievement.
She has received numerous medals
for swimming from the Amateur
Athletic Union, and she organized
the first women's basketball team at
Davidson. A summer conducting
biochemical research and working
with patients at the National
Institutes of Health in Bethesda,
Md., confiirned her choice of a
career.
Medical Family
While Davidson's pre-medical
program is considered by medical
schools to be one of the b^t offered
by colleges in the Southeast, Ehinn
admitted she never felt any of the
widely publicized pre-medical
pressures.
"Medicine has always been a part
of my family," said the vivacious
22-year-old who saw her first
operation when she was 16. "My
grandfather, my father and my uncle
are all physicians. My mother is a
nurse, and my brother John is a
first-year medical student at the
University of North Carolina."
She said she has been lucky in that
she was never expected to conform
to any\ outmoded notions of "a
woman's role."
"I have four brothers, and piy
parents encouraged me to believe
that whatever the guys could do, I
could do too."
Dunn said that growing up with
medicine has helped her to know
what rigorous years of training lie
ahead. When she was very young
she would cry whenever she saw her
father, who was then a surgical
resident, because his visits home
from the hospital were so infrequent
that she didn't recognize him.
It's Official Now
Still, she said she is very excited
about beginning her medical
education, as are all her classmates.
"1 think getting our cadavers on
the first day in gross anatomy class
made many of us feel that it's official,
and we're on our way."
Osterhout said that in addition to
Dunn's, Duke received 4,285 medical
(Continued on page 4)
— m p ,
/ -.vs.
FUTURE PHYSICIANS — First year Duke medical students
Patricia Watkis of Brooklyn, N.Y., Laurie Dunn of Laurinburg,
N.C., and Nancy Milliken of Spartanburg, S.C., (left to right)
began learning the way the human l>ody is put together on the
first day of class in gross anatomy. (Photo by Ollie Ellison)