Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania - Record Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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I i 1 S Social Service Department In February, 1917, Social Service became a part of the course of training for the nurses of the University Hospital. The pioneer band to blaze the trail into the new field comprised four senior nurses: Miss Hurd, Miss Dinsmore, Miss Stratton and Miss MacDonough. No doubt they will all establish fur- ther claim to men-tion in the pages of history, but however this may be, their place in the annals of the Social Service Depart- ment is assured for all time. The promise of this hrst group of nurses has been well fulfilled by their successors, the plan may be said to have passed the experimental stage and to be in a fair way to become an immemorial tradition. There are good results already discernible from the pres- ence of the nurses in the Social Service Department. Through the first-hand knowledge they obtain of the work and their resulting interest in it, the Department is more closely linked with the wards than heretofore, and there is better co-ordina- tion between medical and social treatment. This is of course greatly to the advantage both of the Hospital and of the Social Service Department. Usually the nurses Hnd their interest in the patients deep- ened and broadened by the experience of going into their homes. Thissame experience arouses or intensifies their in- terest in public health, now so important a section of the Held of nursing. More and more niurses are going into public health Work, and medical social service should offer nurses still in training gO0d opportunity to judge its value and possibilities, and so help them in choosing their special line of nursing after grad- uation. Several of the 'Social Service Nursesn have already decided upon some form of public-health nursing as their future work. 93

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Is for Thompson, whose hair is quite blonde, Of talking of Harry she seems very fond. -Stands for University-we all standfor it, Where we got our training and for life made us fit. Stands for both VVarner and West, They are notvery large but they are two of the best. -Means exams, which we all passed, Next comes state board and it is the last. -Stands for you, and you stands for right, Be very good nurses, and always do right. -Stands for zeal, which always inspired us, , We have finished our course, and our instructors admire us. 97

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But whatever career any human being may choose or have thrust upon him or her Qshort of that of a hermit or a Robin- son Crusoej, experience in social work should not come amiss. just as knowledge gained in all sorts of other fields is helpful in social service, so the insight, resourcefulness and breadth of vision which good social work must develop are of use in all other vocations, in institutional nursing, in private nursing, in public-health nursing, also in matrimony and in the gentle art of being a neighbor and a citizen. VVe need not remind those who have read the first chapter of f'Social Diagnosis that social science has its bearing on the work of the doctor, the lawyer, the clergyman and the educator, to all of whom it owes so much. lt is a broad conception of the meaning of social service that our Department means to give its students, rather than a mastery of technical detail, for which they have neither time nor inclination. Such a conception must, to be sure, like the sky-scraper, have a concrete foundation, and fo it must be built not on talk alone Qthough talk is not to be despisedj, but also on practical and thorough case work. VVe do not forget the facts or the prinicples which have been brought to our knowledge by obstacles which we have over- come in the sweat of our brows, therefore we study sociology not from books so much as from the daily life of lVIr. and Mrs. john Doe and the nine little Doe children. Yet, after all, the variety of problems and methods that can be covered in two months' experience is limited, no one can become a trained social worker in so short a time. VVhat can be done an-d the one thing needful to do is to get a social point of view. r that reason The social point of view is by no means confined to social . Wfe all know socially-minded people in every walk of life. They consider individual persons in their rela- 99 wo rke rs