THE NAVY NURSE

[Music] Departure orders endorsed and delivered. Your last day here, Janet. So many things to do to remember. Remember the President of the United States. Greetings. Know ye that reposing special trust and confidence in the patriotism, valor, fidelity, and abilities of Janet Harrison Lee. I do appoint her an enen in the nurse corps in the United States Navy to rank from the first day of July. of the nation and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. That I well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I'm about to enter. So help me God. Remember, John, the words that made you a commissioned officer, a Navy [Music] nurse, and then your arrival at your first duty station, your first glimpse of nurs's quarters. Not exactly the bare barracks you'd expected. [Music] meeting the rest of your indoctrination class and Miss DeWager, your indoctrination instructor. You come from many places, from many schools and hospitals. Now, you will all wear the same caps, the same uniform, but your past experience in civilian nursing will serve you well as a foundation for your work in the Navy, and you will continue to build on that foundation. It's my job to get you started. Please come to me at any time for help. Are there any questions? There were questions. All right. Many of them and she had the answers, but it was all confused in your mind. A puzzle in which the pieces had yet to find their places. Your physical, a part of the picture, the first of the periodic exams everybody gets in the Navy. Yes, it's up to you to keep fit. And physical fitness can be fun, too. Of course, learning to swim may have been something of a struggle. In the Navy, it's plain good sense to know how. Mental fitness, too, and opportunities for professional growth, as Misty Wager put it. And relaxation for those who weren't preoccupied with a thousand other things, like your first shopping trip when you found that a Navy compound is a little city in itself, and you were becoming part of it. The Taylor Shop, that school of Navy fashion. You'd wondered how you'd look in blues. Some difference from the sacred 20 of 198. But you were here to carry on what they started. Navy traditions, customs, and courtesies. A lot more to it than that hurried sewing job or those naive questions of insignia ranks and ratings. You hardly knew the difference between a chief petty officer and a seaman apprentice then. But you soon found your own place on that ladder of stripes. Only four grades between you and the director of the nurse corps. But what a long pull. [Music] [Applause] [Music] She wants this. She wants the other. And so with much to do and see and many things to learn, those first days passed faster than you could count them. Now, before you go into the ward, I'd like you to become familiar with your new hospital. Here's an organization chart showing the many departments that you will work with and the variety of facilities for patient care. You'll do well to take this down in your notebook. Now, there are quite a few features about a large hospital that you should become familiar with. Let's start. The wager really knew that hospital, every bit of it, and in time, you got to know it almost as well as she did. Probably few medical organizations outside the military bring together so much challenging clinical material. Service injuries, combat wounds, sick and injured from the entire Navy and from the other military services as well. All the infections man is heir to, including a few exotic diseases from the many far-flung tropical and arctic areas where the Navy operates. In so far as possible, every facility, all needed equipment, every opportunity for complete patient care, the latest accepted methods of diagnosis and the finest laboratory facilities for putting them into full use. specialized research programs to develop new and better ways of detecting and treating the unusual diseases and conditions encountered in military service. Surgical operating suites among the best to be found. Navy blood banks drawing from civilian and military donors. A tissue bank of preserved human bone and blood vessels. One man's contribution to the recovery of another. Dental clinics, corrective and preventive, to serve patients and staff. Naval medicine cares for all ages, whether young or old. Their ills may be either of the body or of the mind. Often treatment is needed to restore or to reestablish bodily function. Many and varied patients, many and varied treatments. Each service and department carrying out its essential role. Central supply service providing sterile equipment for ward use from a single large stock. Pharmacy furnishing drugs for the entire hospital. Food service division with its assembly line handling of regular and special diets. And all of it, every department focusing on the patients welfare devoted to his care and health. Remember Janet? Not the chart, Dwager said, but the substance behind it, the services it represents. Well, not much time for that kind of nostalgia now. Better get to work. Sorting, packing, things to throw away, things to keep. Each one means something, takes you back. And this not from the president, but from four people you worked with closely. Saunders, your senior corman, Fipps, Dav, and Feats Burton. Remember your first day on your own ward? You had the feeling a ship's officer said to have when he takes over his first sea command, surgical ward 3A, your ward, at least for the 8 hours of the A.M. shift. Two of the four assigned corman were accounted for, but where were the other two? Probably having coffee in the galley. Chances are any new nurse might have a few ideas of her own. Could want to change things around. Try to teach us some new ways. Might even try to change my hypo technique. How is your hypo technique? If I can help you improve it, I'll be only too glad to. We better get ready now. Sick call. And then you learned why they called him Beats Burton. [Music] Good morning. Then you met Dr. Strong, your ward medical officer, captain of your little ship. There's anything I can do for you, let me know. I've been here a whole week myself. Saunders is an old hand. He's been here about 6 months. Well, at least there's one season member on the team. Yes, there is. Good morning. How are you this morning? Yes, it was a team. The patient care team, doctor, nurse, and corman. Each with a particular job. All three contributing to the patients health and welfare. But you didn't stop to think about such things then. You just went ahead with the routine of sick call. Part of your job was to teach corman. So your first problem was to become familiar with their qualifications and experience. so that you could give each the type and degree of instruction he most needed. Of course, all the corman had had a course at hospital core school, but war duty gave them their first contact with practical nursing and actual patients. Fipps, youngest of the lot, fresh from core school, was inclined to be tardy. But this time, for once, he was right on schedule with the patients pre-operative hypo. Someday somewhere else when Fipps was completely on his own or in combat maybe or with a different kind of medication, the punctuality and attention to detail learned on your ward would pay dividends in lives saved. Dav, young, earnest, inexperienced, but eager to learn. Burton, whose exuberance was always carrying him away. Well-meaning, awkward, no talent for detail. Yet, Burton was going to be a problem. But the time to correct Burton was not in front of the patient. Saunders enough experience, enough background to make him a valuable assistant in managing the ward. It was part of his learning experience. His help enabled you to do more for patients and spend more time instructing the younger corman. Saunders was even closer to the time when he would have greater responsibilities and less supervision. Already he could carry out advanced nursing procedures to the complete satisfaction of Dr. Strong and Dr. Strong was not easily satisfied. Saunders was learning by doing as do all corman. What was Burton doing? Better have a look. Of course, Hansen the hernior was quite a character and Burton had a habit of putting speed ahead of efficiency. [Music] Although Davat was already quite skilled with his spiral reverse, he was still laboring under the delusion that the more he put on, the better the job. But he was learning by doing, and you were teaching by doing. Meanwhile, something else had gone wrong. The introvenous needle that Saunders had inserted had slipped from the vein. caught in time. Nothing serious. But Saunders had recognized a good opportunity for instructing the other corman, and an accident became a teaching asset. As Misty Wager said, "Whenever there's a treatment or a technique from which all corman can benefit, bring them together and teach conference style. [Music] But there were other things besides teaching in your relationship with the corman. Sometimes you had decisions to make that would affect their personal affairs, as in the little matter of special liberty. Why? Uh oh, excuse me, Miss Lee. Well, I got a cousin coming in from West Virginia, and he's never been around here much, and uh I wonder if I could have special liberty this weekend. Miss Lee, I got a a letter from a buddy of mine the other day, and he's stationed here in town. Would it be possible to get special liberty this weekend? Well, if I let you both go, we'll be short-handed for the weekend. Dumbrosski is post-operative, and there's plenty of work to be done. You mean one of us has to stay? I'm afraid [Applause] so. 3A, Miss Lee. Yes, it's all right. We'll be ready for him. Dumbrossski is on his way down from surgery. Well, I guess I can let it go another week. Fine, Burton. I guess you're elected now. Gosh, I never thought of that. Damn. I mean, maybe you'll need us both now, huh? I guess I'll stay, too. Good. We can certainly use both of you. Well, let's get started. Will you get the blood? [Music] Critical. Remember, there was your patient care team in action when it really counted. With life or death in the balance, [Music] [Music] No need for words. A sign, a look, a gesture. And everybody did his part. Special liberty forgotten. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Dumbrossski 14 days post-operative removed from serious list records. That was one you'll never forget. Those ward records represented continuity of patient care. Everything that's relevant about your patients. And in the Navy, that covers a wide range. From Dumbrsky, ready to leave the quiet room to Sergeant Winfield, the ward cribage champ. In the Navy, a man is considered sick until he's ready to go back to duty. There's nothing in between. Your up patients were glad to wh away their time for a while, but others who had been up longer found time heavy on their hands, and Dr. Strong recommended you put them to work. Inside duty would relieve their boredom and prepare them physically and mentally for return to active duty, a way of proving readiness for a night away from the hospital, striking for liberty, and incidentally helping to carry part of the workload of the ward. Those corman, though, their work really helped lighten the load. You often wondered what you'd do without them. You tried to keep your relations with the corman professional yet friendly. As Mr. Wager would say, built on mutual respect and understanding. You always hoped it was mutual. [Music] Yes, you'd hoped it was mutual, but you hadn't expected anything quite like this. But your life as a nurse hadn't been limited to the ward. Remember [Music] [Music] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. [Music] And of course, you tried to balance your social life, keeping up your outside professional interests, attending professional meetings, maintaining professional contacts, civilian as well as military. And yes, you'd spent quite a few nights just boning up. How you coming, Janet? About ready? Just about. Did you find your pay account? Yes, and my orders, too. Thank Kevin. Oh, a good thing, too. I'll always remember the wager's warning about never losing your Navy records. Say, what about the wager? Have you heard the latest? No. What? She's been promoted. Oh, good. She deserves it. Come on, help me get this stuff in. Janet Harrison Lee, Nurse Corps, United States Navy, off to your second duty station. They'll be taking off soon, too, when they complete their first tour of [Music] duty. And you, Janet, where, too? West Coast. US Naval Hospital San Diego. Your orders read. But it could as well have been the east coast or even in between at any of a number of Navy hospitals. And in the years ahead, what is in store for you and your friends? Specialized training, perhaps? An instructor at hospital core school? Yes, if you qualify for it. Aboard a floating hospital, possibly. You may visit many far away places in all the continents of the world in all the latitudes. For you there will be all the surprises of tomorrow. Wherever you go, whatever your assignment, you will know a deep feeling of security, a deep satisfaction in serving with others in a common purpose. For you as a Navy nurse are essential to patient care and training of corman in the Navy. Teaching by doing, preparing them for the time when they will be on their own, when they will have to apply what they have learned from you. In peace or war, at sea or in the field, wherever they go, you will be there too through the skills you have helped them to [Music] acquire. Yes. And wherever the Navy goes, there you will find the Navy nurse at sea, on land, or in the air, carrying on a proud tradition, nursing the sick, healing the wounded, caring for all who need her. [Music]