Michael Reese Hospital School of Nursing - Reestar Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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l l History of the Hospital and the Michael ' Reese Nurses' Alumnae Association HE Michael Reese Nurses' Alumnae Association is now in its 32nd year of organization, and in the 16th year of its incorporation. . , Its charter members numbered sixteen, with Mrs. Lester E. FF-HUk6H'Ch21l Cat that UITIC Anne Elinor Noursej as Honorary Presidentg its present membership has reached the two hundred and fifty mark. Wfe look forward Cand why not?D to that time when every graduateof the Michael Reese Hospital School of Nursing will become a member of her Alumnae Association on gradua- tion-or as soon as possible thereafter. i D . . ' , The only requirements for active membership Cwhich includes sick benefits as well as all other privilegesl are the title State Registered Nurse and an annual due of Ten Dollars. U A Sick Benefit Fund was planned soon after organization., and two bazars were held,,1n different years, the receipts from which put it on a good financial basis. .Part of the money so obtained was paid towards the maintenance of a private. room in the Michael Reese Hospital, which room, or its equivalent, was to be held in perpetuity for the use of sick members of the Alumnae Association. 1 . ' I VVe are proud to say that the Hospital Board of Directors have much more than carried out the terms of their agreement innthat respect. E' u . t Any graduate of the Training School is admitted to the hospital as a patient-at Alumnae rates, and all active Alumnae members receive, if necessary, .a maximum of six weeks' hospital care at the expense of their association. ' ' s Q I - J . The Louise Waddell Fund, also a sick benefit measure, gives aid 'principally to Nurses unable to return to workimmediately after ausevere illness. It has been added to from time to time, and is now in the neighborhood of Thirty Seven Hundred' Dollars. A standing committee of five members, with Mrs. Lester E.,Frankenthal as chairman, ,aided bythe Alumnae Board of Directors, has charge of its investment and administration. V The ten monthly meetings of the Alumnae Association, held on the first Tuesday of each month, are divided 'into five business meetings and five social evenings. All routine business is transacted by a Board of Directors, elected annually, composed of a president, a vice-president, a secretary and a treasurer, all chairmenlof standing committees, andfour other alumnae members. all lspecial business, necessitating a majority vote, is transacted ,atthe regular business meetings o t e association.. - - i ' A 1 ' 1 ' 'T ' - The Annual Meeting is held in January, at which all officers are elected, and yearly reports of each department are made, - D . T V Two of the Alumnae annualnevents are the Dinner-Dance given' in-june to the graduating Kass, and the social Evening, in December, to which the Senior Class is invited to meet the umnae mem ers. 4 ' ' . The Hospital s ANCIENT HISTORY I 4 ' HE former Michael Reese Hospital Building was a four story red brick structure, with a capacity of one hundred beds. . I , - . Previous to the organization of the Training School for Nurses, in 1890, it employed a limited number of untrained attendants, male-for the male patients, and female-for the female patients. The internes, of whom there were two, gave all anesthetics, all special treat- ments, such as catheterizations, sponge-baths for typhoids, etc., did all laboratorv work and a good. share of the work now relegated to hospital orderlies. The medicines' prescribed by the attending men were put up in individual bottles, and kept with a spoon bv the bed-side each patieniti taking his own. l ' ' T e training school officers for the first year were:-Su er' t d t f N ' Elinor Nourse, CMrs. Lester E. Frankenthalj, and a first assisfiinf?lllflrisselliaruciislcihlriiidfhlgisasdiiaitlees og St. L11-kelgs Igospital Trlzsning School for Nursesgiand two Head Nurses. Miss Brunskill had c arffe o t e perating ooms and many of the classe h' h 'th 1 i f ' Staffzwlvverei alll llleld during the evening hours. ' S, W IC W1 lectures bl the Medical enig t urses, of whom there were three for the h l h ' h had 'sshhargge of wardsdand ptrivate rooms on different floorsljvvsiitii scfiifg fiiltcliilihifn orderly to help, e upermten ent o Nurses made rounds durin th ' ht d I ' emergency. When Internes were needed, a Nurse went dogwn so Ifhiir slggpinllzilsusffizisl fnidcifstgci them out. . The Internes had very disturbed nights, as the many deliriotg t hoidc d li monia patients needed a man's strong arm to control them yp im- pneu- Page 78 X if fl- H--..m--.--.-,----- wifi, ' l :riffs ii? L ff ' i 'r A Cin filllllil -... --.. ---.-.-.. ,V K ., Y l

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I xi I i Qs- s Qhhress ui Ulflielrnme ow ' ELCOME! Michael Reese graduates of 1925 to the ranks of our Alum- nae Association. Whether you plan to be private duty nurses, or execu- tives in hospital work or civic or industrial nurses, we greet you joyfully, for we need you as you need us. ' We look to you for new viewpoints of our common work, new methods of treatment and technique,ia broader theoretical knowledge, and the enthusiasm of youth. - We offer you the high ideals of service that our predecessors have passed on to us, improvements in nursing conditions brought about through our organiza- tion, and our sympathy and cooperation individually and collectively. May we pass on to you one or two thoughts that have become ours in the hard school of Life? Sympathy, love, cheerfulness-and true spirit of service are as necessary to the sick in body or mind as efficiency in technique or knowledge of materia medica or anatomy. These latter have been especially emphasized and rightly so in the hospital training school, but, in the training school of Life the happiness of those whom we serve and our own happiness are largely dependent on our attitude oft spirit. a Let uso conscientiously adhere to what we have been so thoroughly taught, let us be mentally alert in the application of the principles in which we have been grounded, let us try to follow the Golden Rule and do unto others as we would that they do unto us. ' GRACE WILLIAMS, R. N. Page 77

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OPERA TING-ROOM fxly j . R :xx ' v H A H . . . . aww-uriiilniiiifiiiifitlgbiifiiiiifft, Lapquftomy In those Plays? fequlfed SDCC1211 preparation of the and H005 an utegqils SOLIUOS bspticla duty at that time -was to hose down the ceiling, Walls linen to be used mzvlsvlgoiled EJ. es, ectc.,-were washed with BlChlO1i1CI6 of .Mercury 1-1000, all Copper boiler Thg O ent., U15 in a 5 1, phenol solution, and then in sterile water, in a large fected her minds wrulgdg llclzil 39111 was strung with clothes lines, a Nurse scrubbed and disin- viouq to the O 1 . b lu, 1? men, .lung It up to dry over night, and the next morning, pre- y A I y peiation, again with sterile hands, neatly folded it ready for use. All water used lox solutions was sterilized in large granite pitchers, was ggllillifalilggtgggtltalslle lcomlpared to those now in use, would be considered primitive. Ether pocket large enough to Give? thcgingcixzaiccles itherbconeloff palplerhfolded' and covered .with linen, a on Rhich the anesthetic was drospedi ce eing e t W 1C contained a small piece of cotton ORIGINAL MICHAEL REESE I-IOSPIT-XL Rubber gloves, head and mouth cloths and sterile gon ns, yy ere then unknoyyn in surgical work All gauze sponges iodoform gauze for dressing wounds, and sterile sutures xy ere prepared by the operating room staff THE WARDS After the discharge of patients from the Hospital all the beds rubber sheets and mattresses were carbohzed, and the latter were aired on a back porch bed stands and chairs yy ere ymshed with a weak phenol solution All Ward meals yy ere brought up from the kitchen on carts and were served on trays from a long table in the center of the yi ards and on this table the dishes xx ere afterwards washed by the Junior nurse and any patient yy ho could and yy ould assist All patients were bathed daily Bandages used for dressings yy ere torn in the proper yyidths from niuslm yyhich had been washed and boiled by the nurses the convalescent patients rolled them on small bandage rollers and if not too badly soiled by the dressings they yy ere xx ashed boiled and rerolled for use a second tlme Instruments were treated about as to dav except that the cutting instruments yy ere sterilwed by boiling Surgical dressing carts or ie donated by Dr Emanuel Friend in 1973 f tl wards came into use only a fen years ago the first being Page 79 1 1 7 1 i Q ,y Q 5 I I xl? 1 I 1 if x s 'I Jw 1 , .1 4 Zi: 'J ll? ,f .K - ' 1 1 ' 1 ' ' . . . 7 1 U 11 ' - 1 1 i ' I If. 1 . 1 ' K Y , y . , I v s A C , . Y . Y. . V . Q c R - 1 c - I I X Y Y 1 1 - , . . V . . .1 ' ' ' ' ' y v v ' C 1