Month: February 2017
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Maximum security kindness or the public health nurse accrues her CEU’s
Geraldine GormanChicago, Illinois, United States When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.Abraham Joshua Heschel As she leaned into the doorway of my room, I explained the quandary to my daughter, Grace. “I don’t know what to do,” I said, “I am supposed to present a…
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To Nurse – Hospital Halls – Breath – and more
Carol BattagliaChicago, Illinois To nurse Hospital halls To CareTo SolaceTo TouchTo FeelTo HurtTo NeedTo Heal, othersas well as ourselves. I have walked these hospital hallsfor many years now. Thousands ofsteps, thousands of words, it’s nowonder I’m tired. Talked out.The emotions of others swirl aroundme. Some happy, some relief, someburdened with grief. Sometimes Iturn a corner…
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Nursing during the US Civil War: A movement toward the professionalization of nursing
Karen EgenesChicago, Illinois, United States In April 1861, there was no organized medical corps or field hospital services. In addition, there was no provision for military nurses. At the time, there were no nursing schools, no “trained” nurses, and no nursing credentials. The title “nurse” was also rather vague, and could refer to a woman…
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Freedman’s Hospital
Yanglu ChenNew Jersey, United States The name itself, Freedmen’s Hospital, betrays a sense of bitter conflict: that there existed men unfreed, and they were not treated here—and that even the freed men had only this hospital. In fact, Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington D.C. was the first of its kind because it provided medical care to…
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The Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Wilson EngelArizona, United States The Walter Reed Army Medical Center was—along with its precursor, the Walter Reed General Hospital—the U.S. Army’s flagship medical center for over 100 years, from 1909 to 2011.1 Located on 113 acres at 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C., the Center served more than 150,000 active and retired personnel from all…
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Gorgas Hospital, Ancon, Panama
W. Paul McKinneyLouisville, Kentucky, United States A man, a plan, a canal: Panama. This well-known palindrome describes the grand vision of Count Ferdinand de Lesseps for constructing, under the flag of France, a sea level canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the late nineteenth century. Despite the best efforts of the French, the…
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St. Christopher’s Hospice
Thomas EgnewWashington, United States The twentieth century produced an extraordinary evolution in modern medicine. Burgeoning research and the rigorous application of the biomedical model generated remarkable advances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.1 Refinements in immunization decreased morbidity and mortality from common infectious diseases and the development of antibiotics provided the means to change…
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Reconstructing the world’s first hospital: The Basiliad
Thomas HeyneBoston, United States “A noble thing is philanthropy, and the support of the poor, and the assistance of human weakness…” So rang the emotional words of Bishop Gregory Nazianzen during the funeral oration delivered for his dear friend Basil of Caesarea in 379. Wishing to remind his audience of Basil’s charity towards the poor,…
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The $84.77 Hospital – St. Vincent
Terri SinnottChicago, Illinois, United States What in the United States could be purchased with $87.44 in 1881? In that year Bishop Francis Silas Marean Chatard and four Daughters of Charity1 took that sum and funded the first Catholic hospital in Indianapolis. Chatard had been born in 1834 in Baltimore and his initial calling was medicine. …