Psychiatric Experience Gives Students Better Insight
During
"It’s wonderful,” says attractive
blonde nursing student Kitty Garriss,
bubbling enthusiasm, “so like other
nursing, yet so different.”
Speaking of psychiatric nursing ex
perience as one of seven students in
their third year of Chowan College's
Associate in Arts Degree in Nursing
programs, she is at Duke hospital
completing part of her requiranents.
“Our fears of psychiatric nursing
were unreal, coming from preconceived
ideas and, when we saw this, we helped
patients and thought only of their wil-
fare.
“You don’t give pills, shots or ther
mometers,” Kitty continued. “You give
of yourself. It helps you think more
about helping patients as people.”
A LittI* Scarad
Julia Hayes flaming redhead known
to friends as Judy explained, “We were
very anxious, maybe even scared, a
little, knowing we would work with
these patients on a personal basis for
four months, but this experience helps
us become better over-all nurses, with
broader understanding of how to meet
patients’ needs.”
Driving the college bus during her
second year at Chowan, Julia trans
ported classmates from Chowan's cam
pus to nearby Roanoke-Chowan Hos
pital in Ahoskie- “Working with pa
tients whose needs vary in these hospi
tals,” says she, “is, helping us become
better nurses.”
Locked in Wards
Four girls, including Kitty and Julia,
are locked in wards with their patients
and three work in unlocked wards,
something unheard of until recently
in treating psychiatric patients. More
humane treatment of psychiatric pat-
Vients, including unlocked wards, has
been among programs pioneered by
Duke hospital- Each girl lives in the
coastal area and is preparing to spend
her nursing career as an “angel of
mercy” to people in Coastal Carolina.
Chowan's program arose to help meet
increasing demands for more skilled
nurses in Coastal Carolina. Facilities
at Roanoke-Chowan and Duke hospitals
are used, but the program is com
pletely under the control and supervis
ion of Chowan College. Other colleges
are planning to begin programs sim
ilar to Chowan's in the near future.
Students in Chowan's program who
are now at Duke gaining four months
of intensive psychiatric nursing exper
ience, in addition to Kitty and Julia,
are Betty Jean Crawford and Marsha
Purvis of Ahoskie, Judy Grimm of
Springfield. Virginia, Sandra Hare of
Edenton and Judy Shearin of Roanoke
Rapids. Julia is from Rocky Mount,
and Kitty calls Jackson home.
Gain Experience
These girls gained supervised exper
ience at Roanoke - Chowan during the
second year of their enrollment in the
program. Along with regular academic
courses, to meet requirements for de
grees, they attended lectures and con-
SuTSjna leaiSms ui saouaja;
and maternal-child care, and cared for
patients under the supervision of their
instructor in clinical nursing, Mrs.7
instructor in clinical nursing. Mrs.
Sarah Bryant Tankard. Chowan's se
cond class in the program is now gain
ing supervised experience at Roanoke-
Chowan.
Miss Maryiva Carpenter, professor
in Chowan's Department of Nursing
and coordinator of the program at Duke
coordinates conferences and clinics with
direct care of patients. This combin
ation is designed to help students gain
better understanding of how to meet
patient needs in medical-surgical nurs
ing, maternal-child care and in psy
chiatric nursing.
Mrs. Almira Hoppe Hemstead Ock-
erman, chairman of Chowan's Depart
ment of Nursing, which is a member
of the Department of Associate Degree
programs of the National League for
Nursing, supervises the program at
various hospitals and on the Chowan
College campus.
SUMMER SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
SETS NEW RECORD
Chowan College enrolled a record
number in summer school for the sec
ond six-weeks session. According to an
nouncement from the Office of the
Dean, W. Clayton Morrisette, who is
Director of the summer school, a total
of 430 students enrolled.
PAGE FOUR
THE CHOWANIAN