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)

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