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

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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

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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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fago 'zczfoz INCE the beginning of medicine as true science, certain laboratory procedures have been taken for granted. These tests were relatively few in number and were performed exclusively in the practitioner's office. As medical science grew, and as hos- pitals were founded, it became more and more desirable for many laboratory pro- cedures to be performed in the hospital with the aid of a specially trained st-aff. Today we recognize that the clinical and path- ological laboratory is an integral part of every well-organized hospital. While good medicine can be practiced without the aid of more than 3, few Simple 1a,b01-atm-y tests, there are many patients who require numerous accurate laboratory deteylninationg if we are to honegtly say that we are giving the patient the best that medical science can offer. The management of dia- betes, the accurate diagnosis of cancer, and the typing of pneumococci are instances where the labora- tory iindings are of paramount importance. The laboratory, then, is one of the essential departments of a hospital, which when properly in- tegrated with the work of the staff, and with good nursing care, enhances the effectiveness of all, so that our purpose of healing the sick can be accomplished promptly and intelligently. The general well being of the patient, however, is more dependent on the quality of the nursing care than we often realize. 173 6031272610 S the result of the long recognized need of an adequate pharmaceutical unit in the hospital plant, the pharmacy began operation in August of 1938. Whereas the primary purpose of this de- partment is to supply proper medication to the patients, there are other important ser- vices rendered by the pharmacy. The chief pharmacist acts as secretary of the pharma- ceutical committee composed of members of the medical staff. This body deals with problems of a pharmaceutical nature as they arise. An adequate pharmaceutical refer- ence library is maintained. The pharmacy has immediate supervision over the routine preparation and sterilization of injectable medications tdextrose, physiological salt solution, etc.J, the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, the dispensing of drugs and pharmaceutical preparations, and the handling of narcotic drugs. In addition, the pharmacy handles the purchase of drugs, chemicals and pharmaceutical prep- arations used by the hospital as a whole. Certain necessary biologicals are properly stored in the drug room, others are easily available through this department. The pharmacy is maintained and operated as a unit of the hospital. Twenty