Student Health Studciit Calendar
Speaks
October 4
From The Columbia Record
May 12, 1975
By MARILYN THOMPSON
Record Staff Writer
training programs from
which about 75 per cent of the
practicing nurses in the state
graduated.
Mt. Mitchell day, of course—the bus will take
those who have already signed up (all 111 of us) to
the summit. We eat lunch and hike back. To
ONLY ONE of the hospital round out the day there will be a bonfire on the
diploma programs renwins lawn by the S. U. at 8:30. Montreat musical talent
If Florence Nightingale open at Orangeburg Regioiwl showcased with singing and guitar playing,
could reappear on this, heri Hospital. Most potential
nurses are entering two or tober 6
four-year programs at jj ^ mountain folk musician, wm
coUegesandumversiUes,^d uaj^i^ convocation Monday. Holt, who
MySron rpurruTatonced a folk music course at Warren WUson wiU
S™. play the dulcimer, dobro, spoons, jetra top.
Anne Moye, director of banjo, saw and other mountain musical
nursing at Baptist Hospital,
155th birthday, and roam the
halls of any South Carolina
hospital,, she would no doubt
be shocked.
For even the recognized
founder of modem nursing
(commemorated each May 12
on International Nurses Day)
probably had no idea her
profession would come so far.
From her time until the
recent past, nurses were
considered little more than
doctors’ handmaidens:
women only capable of menial
tasks and hospital dirty work.
TODAY’S NURSES,
however, have earned a name
for themselves as competent
professionals who share
responsibilities with
physicians in total health care
delivery. Slowly but surely,
nurses have acquired an
expanded ro)e, and many
professionals say patients are
reaping the benefits of their
increased knowledge and
technical expertise
‘‘When I came into the
profession after finishing
school in i943, nurses were
still leanimg to take blood
pressures,” observes Cleatus
Walker, assistant ad
ministrator at Baptist
Hospital. Now, she says, the
nurse is expected to measure
as well as interpret vital signs,
carry out diagnostic tests and
assist in such complicated
procedures as spinal taps ^d
of duties and expectations is
long and demanding.
Of course, nurses have
always had plenty of demands
on their time, even in early
civilizations when women
were excluded from the
profession because they were
thought to be too inferior to be
taught physician’s secrets. In
the second century A. D.,
nurses of the Indian physician
Charaka were required to be
competent cooks, trained in
making and cleaning beds,
capable of bathing and
massaging the infirm and
“Never unwilling to do
anything that may be or
dered.”
ALTHOUGH NURSES
practicing today have only
second-hand knowledge of the
“nurse as slave labor” con
cept that predominated
through the centuries, many
old-timers in the profession
say they have seen sweeping
changes since the post World
War n period. Mrs. Walker
claims she has watched the
caliber of nursing candidates
steadily improve since the
1940’s.
“Back then young women
coming out of the Depression
had no money for college, so
nursing attracted a different
group than we do now, mostly
for economic reasons. It was
assumed in the late 1930’s and
early 1940’s that those
financially and scholastically
able would go to college and
the rest w do whatever
they could, .at’s why many
women w£i utracted into the
short-term nursing
programs," she said.
One of the most important
developments in nursing, a
change that has occurred in
the last decade in South
Carolina, is the gradual
phasing out of hospital nurses’
remembers some of the major
weaknesses of the hospital
programs. “It was kind of an
exploitation of the students
because they were used for
service cuid cheap labor at the
hospitals. The student might
have a few courses taught by a
physician, but often there was
no clinical instructor who
understood the nursing
process. Though the students
were inexperienced and
unlearned, they were
sometimes put on night duty
by themselves,” she ex-
ulained.
Perhaps the most
significant reason for the
iemise of the hospital
programs, she added, was the
realization by professionals
that hospitals were supposed
to provide the best possible
treatment for the ailing, a job
that could not be properly
done by inexperienced per
sonnel.
If there was one thing the
hospital programs did offer il
was practical experience -
heaps of it. College programs
are often criticized for falling
short on this aspect of nurses’
struments.
1ST DAY OF SCHOOL
Overnight the summer left us—
It never said goodbye.
Then the morning crept upon us
slow and oh so sly.
We wondered what the new dawn held—
How deep our wonder went.
The newness of our minds compelled
to sing a sad lament—
“Learn the ropes and find your place, meet the
school year face to face, master all the tricks of
youth tU you catch up with the truth set your
dreams upon a star then find out how dumb you
are.”
Moose Wall
new educational trends in
nursing say that college -
trained nurses are learning
something equally important -
the theory on which to base
their professional decisions.
Dean Betty Jackson of the
University of South Carolina
CoUege of nursing notes, “Of
course, we as educators need
to look very closely at the
amount of technical ex
perience we offer the student.
But I believe nurses are much
more capable of refining
technical skills after they
graduate than they are of we’re not trying to compete
building a broad toiowledge with them. We’re just trying to
can’t understand I have no
desire to be a doctor. I like
being what I am.” he says.
Despite the influx of men
into the nursing profession, it
remains about 99 per cent
female nationwide. Many
fenoale nurses welcome their
male counterparts, convinced
they will be helpful in
alleviating the fears of
traditionalist doctors who
dislike the nurses’ expanding
role.
“Hopefully, male nurses
will point out to doctors that
base. Sometimes we tend to
think only in terms of nurses
doing things, but being able to
think a problem through is
also an important part of the
job.”
DAVID OWEN, looking
much like a practicing
physician as he makes his
rounds at Baptist Hospital, is
work together to provide
'oetter health care,” explains
Mrs. Moye.
Because the profession
remains female dominated,
however, nurses say they see
close parallels between the
women’s movement and
improvements in nursing.
Becky Jackson, executive
realizing that if you graduated
from nursing school in 1950,
that certainly doesn’t educate
you for life.”
Mrs. Walker agrees, “Up to
ten years ago, knowledge was
rather limited. But now you
have to read 15 articles on
nursing a week or you get
behind.”
CAROLINE SEIGLER,
assistant director of nursing
at Baptist Hospital, thinks one
of the most far-reaching
developments in nursing has
been the new emphasis on
preventive programs, a
concept which Florence
Nightingale expounded over a
century ago.
Nursing is becoming much
less “crisis oriented,” she
explains, and with more
nurses going out in the
community to teach health
and hygiene, fewer people will
have to undergo hospital
treatment for problems that
October 8 . ,
The Rev. David Bryan, pastor of Ebenezer
Presbyterian Church in Rock Hill, S. C., will
speak in chapel Wednesday. Bryan is a graduate
of ColumbiaSeminaryand a former basketball star
at the University of Tennessee at Chattanoc^a.
He will be in Montreat in connection with a
Covenant Fellowship of Presbyterian Young
Ministers conference.
October 13 . „ j ,.t,
A special bicentennial movie called Beyond
the Birthday” will be shown in convocation.
October 15
Bobby Richardson, former baseball star with
the New York Yankees, will speak in chapel.
Jive Talkin’
by LYNN BUIE
“Jive Talkin’ ” is my commentary on un
derground happenings atM-A C. No names will be
mentioned in order to protect the innocent or the
guilty. The views in this column are mine and do
not necessarily reflect the views of Dust in the
Corner.
The newest sport at Montreat is guy watching
according to a certain group of young ladies. They
were rating guys on physical appearance on a
scale from one to ten. According to the results,
there were no tens, very few nines, and even fewer
eights. So shape up guys, you are being watched!
Number 17 on the baseball team happened to be
in the lobby of MA-HALL one night as a very
“confident” pretty blonde freshman walked in.
“Did you know she wears ‘spaced panties’?” he
asked me. “No, why?” I replied. “Because she
thinks her derriere is ‘out of this world’! ’..
Montreat’s head cheerleader has b^n in the
company of a promising pitcher lately. For
tunately she doesn’t keep him waiting on her long
agenda. He’s on top!
The head cheerleader in the shoe.
Has so many admirers,
She doesn’t know what to do.
Because she’s tall, pretty and thin,
And always wears a grin.
She’s very popular with the men.
living proof of another major director of the South Carolina
development in the past Nurses Association, says
decade. He is one of three
growing number of men who
are entering the nursing
profession after a long period
of domination by females.
Owen, who received ex
tensive training as an Army
nurse juid is now enrolled ir
nurses have begun to “go
through a kind of con
sciousness raising about
themselves and the con
tributions they are making in
the employment setting. The
development of the self-image
of nursing has been an im-
the use program, says he portant trend.’
meets little of the open WITH MORE confidence in
hostility he might have fac^ a themselves as professionals,
decade ago when men, other she said, nurses are realizing
than physicians, were not the importance of making
accepted at the hospital their ideas known, par-
bedside. ticularly in the legislative
Occasionally, he encounters arena. Currently, nurses are
female patients who object to working to aeWeve several
his presence in the room, an legislative revisions of the
attitude he considers ironic Nurses Practice Act,
since most of the same women originally passed in 1917, that
have male physicians. Some would bring the law up to
patients, confused by his present-day standards,
unorthodox career choice, will As Mrs. Moye explains,
ask pointedly why he did not “This is an age of keeping up
study to be a physician. “They educationally. Nurses are
I’m sure you have all heard the joke that goes:
Q. What’s the difference between Montreat
women and Montreat trash cans? A. Montreat
trash cans get taken out at least once a week,
Montreat women don’t. So ladies, if you want a
date, jump in a trash can.
Attention Please ! Will the owner of a certain
blue ’71 Nova please contact a short cheerleader
with braces for pep talk.
There are two ladies in room 502 on fifth floor
MA-HALL who are tired of exercising for nothing.
They are waiting for results.
Not only does her afro shine, but the stars in her
eyes are also shining for: He’s a player. He’s a
could have been prevented ginger^ Dresses like a “Hollywood” swinger'!
wife proper care. ^ certain president of S. G. A. commented that
nurses ome more three girls to every guy on Montreat’s
campus. He wants to know who’s the wise guy who
stole his three.
This is Lynn saying hope you will be with us
next time for “Jive talkin’ ”. Remember any
opposing letters are welcome. This doesn’t mean
they will be read,but they are welcome. Until next
time remember “Everybody is a star , your shine
is just different from mine.”
competent and better
educated, professionals are
confident that the self-image
of nursing will continue to
improve and that the effects
will be felt in better nursing
care at hospitals and public
institutions.
Geraldine Labecki, a
registered nurse who served
as dean of Qemson Univer
sity’s College of Nursing
predicts, “The nurse of the
future be included in all
policy-making bodies. Her
presence will not be mere
tokenism. She or he will be
employed in some of the mosi
strategic posts to influence
car. Policy-making bodies at
the feder^, state and local
levels will look to the
professional nurse for
leadership in health care.