Rex Hospital School of Nursing - Nightingale Yearbook (Raleigh, NC)

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Dgafefziai What 'nsirrr-if HE Obstetrical Department of Rex Hospital is one of the best organized and - most complete units of the hospital. It has one entire hall which is composed of eight private rooms, three semi-private rooms, one three-bed ward, and three four-bed wards, one nursery and two delivery rooms, which contains all necessary instruments and sup- plies, including a new resuscitator for new- horns. The obstetrical nursing staff is composed of supervisor. assistant supervisor and sev- eral student nurses during the day, and a supervisor and several student nurses during the night. Each student nurse has to serve two months on the hall and one month in the nursery. The obstetrical staff is composed of the three full-time obstetricians on the hospital staff, but all the doctors have full access to the department at all times for private patients. The obstetrical staff super- vises the care of all charity patients. The obstetrical interne has a two and one-half months' service. He is responsible for all charity pa- tients. He has the opportunity of delivering all cha1'ity patients tunder the supervision of the obstet- rical staffl and assisting on all private patients. VVard rounds are made at least once a day by the in- terne and a member of the obstetrical staff. Practically all of our charity patients come through our Prenatal Clinic which is held once a week and attended by two members of the obstetrical staff and the obstetrical interne. This clinic was or- ganized by the Junior League of Raleigh and we are deeply indebted to them for their services. With continued improvement, we hope that we will be able to give mothers and infants a brighter outlook on life. Ln,-..-T - .J 1 Qadiafzici HE heads of this department, Doc- tors A. S. Root, Charles Bugg, and Charles Williams, have made this service a very in- structive and interesting one, not only to nurses, but to internes as well. Children's Hall proper is divided into three wards and several private rooms. The largest of the wards, which faces the east, has a capacity of twenty-five beds. These are separated by partitions so that isolation l precautions may be observed if necessary. At the far east side of this ward, is a large inclosed sunporch which is equipped with a Wesco sun lamp, a small but complete library and a set of infant scales. The two smaller wards have a capacity of three and four beds respectively, the former facing the south, the latter the north. The so-called Treatment Room is equipped and used for dressings, spinal punctures, hypodermoclysis, intravenous infusions. A separate unit is the Formula Kitchen, where bottles are sterilized for use, and where formulas are mixed under aseptic precautions. There are usually eight to ten nurses on duty on this hall in the course of twenty-four hours. Five of these are senior nurses. Eighteen

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LL'Z49E'Zy N nearly every hospital the Department of Surgery is the largest and most active. This is true of our hospital. We are very proud of our Surgical Department, not only because we believe that ours is the best in the State, but also because of the amount and character of work we contribute and the training and experience we derive from it. At the head of the department is the chief of the Surgical Service. There are also six active surgeons who serve two months each during the year. They care for the service and unassigned patients who come for treatment in the emergency room, or in the out-patient department or for hospitalization. To the emergency room at all hours of the day and night, come all kinds of minor accidents which are cared for by the nurses and internes. In the well-equipped clinic or out-patient department we acquire considerable experience in working with the internes and junior surgeons. The surgery is complete in all the essential details. There are three active operating rooms under the supervision of an experienced graduate nurse and her assistant. There are two most efficient anesthetists and sufiicient student nurses to assist in these operating rooms. It is here that we realize the absolute necessity of accuracy, speed, and safety in all details pertaining to operating-rooni technique. 5Vlecficine HE medical service of Rex Hospital in the past three years has undergone a remarkable increase in the number of patients treated. Formerly, surgical admissions to the hos- pital outnumbered medical admissions by about two to one. At the time of this writing the number of patients admitted for medical conditions has equaled those for surgery for the past six months and shall probably continue to do so. With this growth the charity service has more than kept pace. The thirty-two beds allocated for service patients in our hos- pital have been full constantly and the lengthy waiting list taxes at all times the best thought of our house officers in their efforts to decide who is most worthy and needy as well as next in line of admission. Of these thirty-two beds the medical service utilizes half and the conditions treated truly comprise the most important afiiictions of the citizens of this community. Seventeen

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Lgtffiofzacfici HE Orthopedic Department includes the fracture service and the regular ortho- pedic service. The fracture service is about what one would expect in a general hospital of this size. Sometimes it is very active and at other times there is a lull. Even so. there are enough fractures so that all the nurses can get a. good idea of how such pa- tients should be cared for. The orthopedic service proper shares in the State-wide orthopedic program. The l North Carolina plan for the treatment of l cripples is believed to be one of the best de- veloped in the United States in proportion to the population of the State. The North Carolina Ortho, pedic Hospital at Gastonia, a large and splendidly equipped institution, is the center of the plan. It is supported entirely by the State. In addition to its own expenditures, the State receives its proportionate share of federal aid for cripples, and this money is expended under the dirertion of the State Board of Health. There are in the State twenty-two general hospitals which are approved as being properly equipped and staffed for this work. Rex is one of these hospitals. It receives crippled children from many communities in Eastern North Carolina. During the past year forty-one children and nine adults were treated in Rex as a part of the State program for the treatment of needy cripples. Dc-Jef, ' HE Rex Hospital X-Ray Department is well equipped with space, efficient per- sonnel, and adequate equipment. It is located on the third floor west wing adjacent to the operating, cystoscopic, and cast rooms. and is housed in seven rooms which are as fol- lows: reception, deep therapy, large radio- graphic, reading, iiling, drying, and cysto- scopic. The equipment of the department is adequate, except for radium, of which there is none. The mechanics of the de- partment includes a deep therapy, a cysto- scopic x-ray table, a bedside unit, a com- plete set of transformers, a radiographic with built-in bucky diaphram and fluoroscope, a stereoscope with two viewing boxes, a film dryer, film tiles, etc. The department, during the past year, had eleven hun- dred and twenty-six patients, took twenty-seven hundred and eighty-seven films, and made one hundred and Hfty-seven Huoroscopic examinations, besides having thirty-six patients who received sixty-five deep therapy treatments. Nineteen