Hahnemann Hospital School of Nursing - Hahnoscope Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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CLASS HISTORY Congratulations is the magic word! Now you ' re a graduate nurse of Hahnemann Hos- pital. Lots in the future and lots in the past. You ' re looking for the position in nursing you want most of all. All this and more in the future, along with all the wonderful memories of the past three years. These are times never to be forgotten. As we congregate in groups, after shift or stay up until 3-4 a.m. after day duty, we spend much time talking over the events that took place in our eight hour tour of duty. Before the group retires, many times we find ourselves talking over our firsts. Starting with that familiar date, September 6, 1955 — the day we entered training. Re- member how scared you were? It wasn ' t quite so bad once you found there were thirty- three others feeling the exact same way. We had the shakes and shed the tears and then the jolt, and was that a jolt, when you first saw your room in the third house — Probie Hall. It wasn ' t bad at all after we made it homey with pictures, stuffed animals, and all the unimportant things that we just couldn ' t do without. In fact, looking back we spent our happiest days there; making new friends, going new places, staying up until 1-2 a.m. talking about hometowns and friends (mostly boyfriends). Our first classes really scared us! We couldn ' t take enough notes or stay up late enough to study. Although we say we couldn ' t go through that again, we all feel deep down it was the greatest. How about those times you wanted to pack up and go home — or maybe you even got as far as packing? Thank Goodness for our friends and families and the trouble they went to in order to keep us here. We came to dread i the sound of an alarm at 6:15 a.m., the wait for the bathroom, the rush to chapel and onward to a long day of continuous lectures. Wasn ' t it hard to become accustomed to being called Miss ? It was even fun getting our preclinical blues as now we felt more a part of nursing. Onward, duty is calling, and now is your first time on the ward and taking care of an actual patient. This time the patient was not your roommate, but a sick person. You knew right well you felt sicker than that patient; but you told yourself that if you were going to be a nurse, this was a big step forward and you tried your best to do a good job. As you and your classmate part and wish each other good luck — you receive your assignment and go to work. Remember that first patient? You cheerfully, but nervously, wish him a good morn- ing and proceed to ex plain that you are going to give him a bedbath. Oh, happy day! Out of the room you go for linen, water, and all the trimmings. Of course, you forgot the mouthwash and have to go back to that unfamiliar utility room. You start the bath — face, hands, etc., then leave the room until he completes the bath and return to make the bed. You ' re embarrassed when the patient offers helpful hints and humbly thanks you as you leave because if nothing else, he was glad for someone to talk to. A sigh of relief and off you go to lunch where you talk noisily to your friends about my patient. But then you realize that your assignment was kind of easy — why so and so ' s patient had two tubes and was unconscious. It was a day of learning and a day you were glad was over. As you continue in preclinical class block, you work only a few hours a week on the floor to help you become acquainted with daily routines. During this time in class you learn chem- istry, anatomy, nursing arts, etc. Mentioning nursing arts, that ' s the class that teaches you nursing procedures, enemas, douches, medicines, and hypodermics. Speaking of hypodermics, remember your first on your classmate? Finally, the most exciting day approaches when you are to be capped. It ' s so hard to believe that you ' ll be wearing a white bib, apron, and a cap. This is your reward for working so hard in those first six months, and everyone is so glad that the time has come. Remember how you were shaking when you walked up the aisle in Klahr Audi- torium. Knowing your parents are watching and feeling proud- — goodness knows they probably went through more than we did. You ' ll never feel the same again as you did when your big sister placed the cap on your head. Finally the whole class recited The Florence Nightingale Pledge. 24

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President JOAN CHAMBERLIN i Vice-President PHYLLIS MACCARONE Secretary JUNE TRUITT Treasurer VIRGINIA JUSTICE

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Freshman Block starts off with a bang! All of a sudden you go on with procedures on your own and you take charge of departments. You ' re working half of a day and going to classes the other half. Besides so many changes, you don ' t get every weekend off as in the previous six months. Golly, when you think of some of the silly things you did while learning! It was all worth it and that ' s the way you really learned. It was so embarrassing until you learned the doctors ' names. It made it sort of hard on the doctors too — especially when they weren ' t allowed in to see a patient because the patient wasn ' t allowed to have visitors. So many things happened in Freshman Block — but they happened so fast that you didn ' t really have the time to worry. Diet Kitchen, where during Freshman Class Block you spent a month. Here in Diet Kitchen you learn many tilings about nutrition and its importance. The diabetic diet is your main concern, as you write diets and select and weigh foods for special diets. Before you knew it, you had spent a month vacationing at home. Now a wide black band was added to your cap. A junior at last! You ' re starting case studies, more yellow records, and resume more responsibility, and begin specialties. Pediatrics came first. The first month was spent working and attending classes. The next two months you spent working. When you think back, Pediatrics was great. The babies were so cute and you could give them all the love that many of them never knew. The older children really looked up to you as someone special. This was a good feeling. Now you learned about children, their ways, and how very honest they are. It was sad, too, but let ' s face it, you ' ll never get away from that in a hospital. But now as a junior, you again return to the Surgical Ward. It seems so different now, even three months as a junior has changed you. You find that you have more organization, and your work is easier to do. Some of the busiest nights were spent there; caring for burn cases and head cases. This was hard work that made you feel like you were really doing your duty as a nurse. Here you learned to respect the surgeon, his skill in diagnosis, the operation he performed, and the recovery he demands. You learn much about pre and post op care, the signs of shock and hemorrhage. Your chances for education and experience in the surgical field are unlimited. Alas, another class block begins! This time Obstetrics. Boy, were you scared! But no wonder as you remember hearing about the unsteriles. Thoughts such as: How will I ever find the fetal heart rate, know, and time a contraction accurately, or when is the right time to take the patient to D.R.; keep going through your mind. But after learning all the details, it, too, took a special place in your training. The nursery with all the new, wet, and crying babies — the proud possessions of proud parents — also contributed to your liking of O.B. Ante-partum, the part of training that made you wonder if you ever really wanted to have children; but then after the delivery and the mother saw her baby for the first time — you knew it was all worth it by the proud look on her face. It was such a good feeling to walk from the delivery room with the baby and be greeted by an anxious father wanting ver y much to see his baby for the first time. Post-partum had its reward, too. Mothers were learning, for the first time, how to care for a new baby and awaiting the day that they could dress it up in new and frilly clothes for the trip home. As a junior, your month of vacation is taken in the winter and you return to Medical for a month to await the beginning of the next class block. On the Medical Ward, in comparison to Surgical, you find again skill in diagnosis but this time treatment is with medicines, bedrest, etc. Your knowledge is put to good use, as you may pick up important signs and symptoms from talking with and observing the patient, taking an apical-radial rate, and taking a blood pressure. There is always plenty of a chance for education and experience and the giving of good nursing care on Medicine. It ' s time again for more classes. This time it happens to be four specialties including genito-urinary, gynecology, orthopedics, and chest surgery. On Orthopedics, we become familiar with the muscular-skeletal system and ways of treating it with frames, extensions, etc. G.U. seemed famous for its little old men. You learned well the importance of a good urinary output, how to irrigate Foleys, and the constituents of normal urine. 25