Watts School of Nursing - White Cap Yearbook (Durham, NC)

Page 8 text:

4 2 i Student nurses worked from seventy to eighty hours a week. The stu- dent nursing program expanded from two to three years in 1909. Stu- dents did private duty in their spare time; and were paid ten dollars a month for the first and second year and fifteen dollars a month for the third year. Graduate nurses were added to the hospital staff in 1932. They worked a minimum of fifty-six hours a week, replacing the student nurses as head nurses. Graduate nurses took complete charge of the pharmacy, went on ambulance calls and worked in the operating and delivery rooms. The pay was twenty-five dollars a month, room and board.

Page 7 text:

Our story started eighty years ago when hospitals were few and far between. People had money problems then, too. The average worker earned twenty-two cents an hour. The price of a ward bed at Watts Hospital was six dollars a week, and that was considered outlandish. The citizens of Durham were lucky. George Washington Watts donated a hospital and also made up the deficits for those who could not or would not pay. Over the years, Watts Hospital continued to grow and become a vital part of the health care of the community. In the history of Watts Hospital there were several moves and expansions of the facilities. During 1976, the hospital moved to Roxboro Road and became Durham County General Hospital, while the School of Nursing remained at the historical Watts campus. Today the school, now the oldest diploma school in the state, is looking forward to leaving its home of many years on the Watts Campus and moving to a new building on the Durham County General Hospital site. Truly, it is a time to say good-bye.

Page 9 text:

In 1919, a new labo- ratory was added for modern clinical pathol- ogy, surgical pathology, blood chemistry, serol- ogy, and the hospital’s first pathologist was hired. it’s hard to believe these carefree Watts students are now head nurses, supervisors, ect. es: the years 1,759 registered nurses have een educated at Watts Hospital in classrooms such as this one.