Nurses have played vital role in patient care at Medical Center

From sterilizing instruments to bedside shift reports, nursing responsibilities have changed and grown

MacKinlay, Witt, Lorentz, McLucas, Johnston, Marie Henry’s sharp However, upon a recommendation from a and Milroth. mind friend who had two nieces in Chicago pursuing

Everyone knows the doctors’ names that are Marie Henry is 99 years a nursing degree, Henry traveled solo to Chicago synonymous with Fulton County Medical Center. old. She has seen, heard and carved out quite a niche for herself in the Nurses have also played a tremendous role in paand done almost everynursing program at American Hospital. tient care, from the very first day Fulton County thing as a registered nurse. “I took care of two gangsters,” she exclaimed. Medical Center opened its doors in 1950. Nurses “Busy? You could say that “When I was scheduled to get my cap, the are always on the front line, yet have remained in again and again,” laughed administrators asked if I was going to change anonymity. Obviously, a lot has changed -- from Henry when asked about careers because of my ear. I said ‘no way, I love uniforms and paperwork, to technology and Marie Henry her younger days as an RN being a nurse.’ Dr. Pollock went to bat for me and protocols, and even the gender gap. at FCMC. “Medical emergencies, patient care, I worked for him upon graduation.”

We take a look back at the role and respon(baby) deliveries … it was all exciting.” She wound up in Fulton County, but first sibilities of the nurses at FCMC and how they She was on the front line and helped treat worked at Chambersburg Hospital for three have evolved through the decades. When the Peggy Ann Bradnick, who was rescued from her years. She married and became a part of a nurses were interviewed separately for this story, kidnapper – a story that gained national attention farming family. She left the profession to raise they reflected on many topics, some specific in May of 1966. her children. She missed it dearly and returned and others in generalities. This is a sample of the “She was wearing his pants and boots when to the profession as her children grew older. She specifics one former nurse shared: they brought her into the Emergency Departwas hired at FCMC. Her career here stretched ment,” recalled Henry. “She had assorted bumps nearly two decades. Back in the day with an IV pole and bruises from being in the mountains and on She proudly shows her Dutch-style nursing

“I would hang a glass bottle with fluid on an the move for seven days.” cap made from a hard, white-starched fabric. IV pole. Calculating how many drops per minute Henry is blind in her right eye and has lost “This hat has plenty of stories,” she says with a were needed so it would run over the prescribed hearing in her right ear, but her mind is sharp. smile. time, and then counting the drops for a full She shared many stories, including her own. minute. I would rip off a piece of white adhesive “I always wanted to be a nurse,” said Henry, Carol Mellott and lifelong memories tape, writing the date and time the IV was started who grew up in Bethel Park. “At age three, I had “Those days (in the 1960s and ‘70s) as an RN with my initials, and attach that to the IV tubing. diphtheria. I was treated for it, but my right ear carried a lot of responsibility,” said Carol Mellott. I checked the IV often throughout my shift, maknever fully healed. None of the hospitals in Pitts“We were fortunate to have RNs on each shift, ing sure it was dripping at the correct rate. There burgh, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore would and we needed them because only the RNs could wasn’t an alarm to alert me when the bottle was accept me into their nursing programs because give medication. We covered the ER, Maternity, dry. There was no Smart Pump back then – just of my ear. They said I wouldn’t hear all and Acute Care. We smart nurses who knew what to do.” the doctor’s orders. I was very disapworked along with pointed.” June 2008: Former FCMC sold to local developer as FCMC announces plans to the aides and the consolidate to one campus. The new addition will house Specialty Physician September 2008: Fulton

June 2005: April 2006: Ground broken for the Oct. 17, 2007: Services, Administration, Accounting, County Medical Center

Received $1 new FCMC as JLG Industries donates Moving day at the old Business Office, Community Relations, Foundation formed million bequest $1.5 Million to relieve FCMC of facility into the new The Foundation, Home Care and after the formation of a from Cora Grove outstanding debt on the old facility facility started in the Managing Information Systems (MIS). Development Office was will. located at 216 S. First St. early morning hours. established in 2000.

2006 February 2005: Volunteer Campaign Fundraising committee formed with local businesswoman Helen Overly as chairperson. April 2005: Polly and Bob Shimer bequest $1,475,000. 2007

Nov. 14, 2007: Ribboncutting ceremony at the new Fulton County Medical Center. 2008

Nov. 18, 2007: The New FCMC located at 214 Peach Orchard Road, officially opens for business 6 a.m. 2009

June 30, 2009: Groundbreaking ceremonies of 16,000-square foot Specialty Services building.

LPNs – lots of great teamwork. And, of course, we worked with the all the doctors. But, I’m being honest, it was a very primitive environment and very tight quarters -- we had one six-bedroom unit – can you imagine six patients in one room?” “If we worked day shift, we poured all the medicines for that day,” said Mellott. “After our shift, we also had to fill out the charts, which meant really 12- to 14-hour days. Sometimes we also assisted with surgery after the shift was over, so that meant assisting in the OR until sometimes 2 a.m.”

Mellott began as a nurses’ aide in 1961. After finishing a year at Wilson College, en route to completing a five-year nursing program, she opted for a three-year RN program at Columbia Hospital in Pittsburgh. She was one of 20 students to graduate, and then she returned to Fulton County. She became a graduate nurse and took the RN Exam in the fall of 1964. She worked at FCMC for a year before moving to South Carolina with her husband who was in the Navy. He was then transferred to New York, but she opted to return to Fulton County in 1965 and lived with her sister until her husband returned.

“Nursing has always been a big part of my life,” said Mellott, who also ran the county’s Bloodmobile program for 25 years. “I remember as a little girl running around at the Medical Center Street Fair. It was a big deal. The nurses always played a big part with them. Perhaps they played a part in me wanting to be a nurse. When I did become a nurse (RN) and came to work at the Medical Center, we had a good group of ladies. Great teamwork.”

She’s been involved with the Auxiliary for over 50 years, including the role of treasurer since the mid-1990s.

“The Medical Center has been a big part of my life … besides, what else would I do?” said Mellott.

Delores Christian begins nursing career, making 65 cents an hour

Delores Christian made 65 cents an hour as a nurses’ aide in 1959 at FCMC. After graduating from LPN school in 1970, she worked Delores Christian second shift at Decker’s Nursing Home and then at FCMC during the night shift on her “days off.”

“There were two or three nurses working at night,” recalled Christian. “We did it all – Emergency Room, Acute Care, Maternity Ward … you name it, we did it from department to department.”

There was no disposable equipment, which meant re-using the same equipment.

On night shift, the nurses were responsible for cleaning and sterilizing the instruments. “We cleaned and sterilized the syringes and the needles,” recounted Christian. “If the needles had any burrs on them, we had a little stone that we would use to sand them. The last thing we would do was dip them in ether and put them in a clean towel.

In 1972, she became the office manager for Dr. Johnston and retired in 2012 from Tri-State.

Phyllis Bard

Bard: Mover and shaker

Patients would drive to her home for her to take their blood pressure. One ended up with a pacemaker. Another had to have open-heart surgery. Phyllis Bard was a mover and shaker: RN, Director of Nursing, mentor, trainer, home-health nurse, nursing home administrator and CPR instructor … just to name a few in the healthcare profession only.

After graduating from DC General at the Capital School of Nursing and at Hagerstown Community College (her class in nursing at HCC was the first to graduate), she came to FCMC in 1971 as a part-time staff nurse. “I walked in that morning and quickly learned on the job,” said Bard. “There wasn’t an orientation, or a manual. You went to work and learned so many jobs. There were only two or three RNs to cover all the departments.” Still part-time and juggling another nursing job in Hancock, she was offered the in-service utilization review position at FCMC. “I assigned the patient a number of days they would be here after their diagnosis,” explained Bard. “If their stay went over those days, the doctors had to justify it. Needless to say, the doctors weren’t too keen about it, but we knew this process was needed and it had to be done.”

She would then become the assistant director of nursing that led to the director’s position from 1975 to 1978. She started the candy striper program, in which aspiring young female nurses could get real world experience by being around the nurses.

“We needed to free-up the nursing staff from the ordinary things like filling water pitchers so they could focus on patient care,” said Bard. “I had a big doll. The candy stripers attended training classes on Saturdays. They learned how to bathe a baby, how to take blood pressures and temperatures. We later hired them as nurses’ aides. Many of them became nurses and two of them became doctors. They came to work in little red and white uniforms with red aprons. My little sister Jan became a candy striper who later became an RN.”

2010s

June 22, 2010: Ribbon-cutting ceremony of new specialtyservices building. July 1, 2012: Installation of new information system throughout FCMC. March 18, 2013: Auxiliary makes a gift of $20,000 to the FCMC Foundation for the new Wound Care Services. May 2014: New MRI system installed.

2011 2012

June 24, 2011: The Corner Gift Shop opens inside FCMC. April 1, 2013: The new Wound Care Services is officially open. July 1, 2013: A $250,000 threemonth Emergency Room Expansion Project launches. 2013 2014

November 1, 2013: The Emergency Room Expansion Project is completed. It features expanded space, care and services and is funded in its entirety by individuals, businesses and organizations. Air Methods LifeNet 8-1 donates GPS Approach System. July 2014: Dr. William Milroth’s Family Practice and FCMC entered into a collaborative partnership.

Phyllis Bard’s nurse cap.

She also was a mentor. “When I was director of nursing, Mike Peck was an orderly, later called a nursing assistant,” recalled Bard. “Mike is a very friendly, outgoing person. I called him into my office one day and told him he was wasting his time. I knew he didn’t really want to be an orderly and encouraged him to get an education. I asked him what he really wanted to do. He said work in the OR. I scheduled him to shadow the folks working in the OR. He went on to become a doctor. I saw him a few years ago. I asked him, ‘Mike, do you remember me giving you that pep talk?’ He replied, “Yes, I sure do.”

She said nursing is rewarding and it encourages people to attend school to pursue their passion.

“I never stopped learning,” said Bard, who took a leave of absence to get her BA in Business Administration and then her master’s in Public Administration. She would later in life attend seminary, and enter the ministry. Yet, she still keeps her RN credentials updated. “You never know when a disaster will hit and FCMC will need extra help.”

After earning her two degrees, she returned to FCMC to assist with the new wing of the nursing home at the previous facility downtown.

“They opened up the long-term care unit, and I memorized the regulations because as the director of nursing, I was going to be responsible for everything,” explained Bard. “I took the Nursing Home Administrator License exam and passed, but it was a rat race.”

She later mentored Mr. Robert Murray so he could obtain his NHA license. “Being a nurse provided a great background to becoming an administrator because I knew the problems of being a nurse, the problems of the patients and I understood the administration side of things,” said Bard, who also wrote policy and procedure manuals for FCMC. “We didn’t have any manuals, and when it came time for inspections, they were asking for them.”

Those manuals came in handy when there was a 46-passenger bus accident on the PA Turnpike. “We had the procedures in play and running by the time Dr. McLucas came to the hospital to start treating patients,” said Bard proudly of the action plan. “When I had to call a physician at 2 a.m. in the morning to come to the Medical Center, I had to be insightful to convince them to come in.”

She was a stickler to details. “I always told my girls to be in full uniform -- white dress or slacks and wear their cap,” said Bard. “My philosophy: if you take good care of the patients, dress neatly and the family sees that quality care, you get and earn a good reputation. Word of mouth is better than anything. I always dwelled on polished shoes, too. When I was in nursing school, I polished my shoes and washed my shoe strings every night. It sends a positive message.”

Bard then reflected: “Working at the Medical Center was always exciting, always a learning experience, and Dr. McLucas loved to teach … I loved making rounds with him because he would explain everything. As nurses, we did almost everything. We didn’t have a choice. When I had a tough night, like when we lost someone in ICU, I would always walk by the nursery. Somehow, that made it all worthwhile. And when I look

Weller Reflects

Barb Weller worked 50 years at FCMC. Prior to retirement, she served as an LPN for the Health and Wellness Center. She started in the winter of 1969 as a volunteer with the Future Nurses of America proBarb Weller gram at Southern Fulton High School. She was hired as a full-time nurses’ aide the next year before going to LPN School in Chambersburg. She graduated in 1972 and was hired as a fulltime LPN. She worked in Acute Care and Long-Term Care, Physical Therapy and the Pharmacy.

In 1988, she became the Infection Control Nurse with community service, education and business outreach components added for good measure.

“For an LPN back then, this was quite a service to offer,” commented Weller. “In 2010, there was a need for a school nurse, so I worked at the Medical Center and also substituted as a school nurse at Central Fulton. It was considered part of the community service program.”

Communication, according to Weller, is the key to quality care and treating patients and residents, then and now. “The nursing staff worked in a variety of departments, and you needed to know each patient back in the day, going from room to room,” said Weller, who also assisted on ambulance calls. “We had one male and one female restroom. We had two rooms that had four-bed wards, one for the men and one for the women. If we had special assignments, they were posted on the kitchen door. They were checkmarked as they were completed.”

2015

Aug. 28, 2015: FCMC commemorated its 65th year of operation with a celebration hosted by the FCMC Foundation, which also produced a 32-page keepsake publication. Guest panelists included Robert Raker (FCMC Supervisor from 1953-58), Vonnie Miller (former Director of Nursing) and Marie Henry (RN), who shared stories and reminisced about their working days at FCMC.

FEB. MARCH APRIL

March 2015: With a new logo and name, Team Home Health expanded and serves patients in their homes located in Fulton, Franklin, Bedford, Huntingdon, Blair, Juniata, Mifflin and Center Counties. MAY JUNE JULY

March 2015: FCMC receives a 4-star ranking (out of a possible 5 stars) from The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). AUG. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC.

A Nurse’s Prayer

Give me strength and wisdom, When others need my touch; A soothing word to speak to them, Their hearts yearn for so much. Give me joy and laughter, To lift a weary soul; Pour in me compassion, To make the broken whole. Give me gentle, healing hands, For those left in my care; A blessing to those who need me, This is a nurse’s prayer.

Weller said large canisters, perhaps 50-pounders, of oxygen were pushed around on dollies into the rooms. Patients were wheeled out of their rooms to use the lobby pay phone. Hot water bottles wrapped in towels were used as hot compresses.

“The doctors were good educators,” Weller said. “Whatever came their way in terms of illness, or an injury, they knew what to do.”

Then and Now

Cornelius Strait (CRNP), Chief Nursing Officer at FCMC, has seen nursing evolve in just 10 short years. “I graduated from nursing school in 2010. I remember doing clinicals with Cornelius Strait paper charting before EHR (electronic health record),” said Strait. “Not only is nursing constantly changing, but medicine in general, which all trickles down to more responsibilities for nurses. There is a big push, and rightly so, about infection control. In the old days, there were stories about nurses not wearing gloves when taking care of patients, not wearing masks and getting blood on their hands. Customer satisfaction is being driven more today than in the past, which is really changed the way nurses are expected to do their daily jobs. Not only is customer service just being polite to patients, but now you have to document how you are addressing the customer service part with hourly rounding, the bedside shift reports and the bedside documentation.

Strait said patient safety with medication scanning, for example, is a great tool, but time management is the biggest struggle for nurses today.

“You can teach skills, impart knowledge through schooling and on-the-job training, but time management still lacks today,” said Strait. “For example, say you have 16 nurses on the floor. How many of those nurses are practicing nursing the same way? Or do we have 16 nurses practicing nursing in 16 different ways? We are constantly looking at ways to improve time management for our nursing staff.”

Looking at nursing 70 years ago versus today, Strait said there was a standard set of medication and treatment options. “Today there are tens of thousands of medications, and treatment options have quadrupled over time,” offered Strait. “You have to be aware of all of those options in nursing nowadays. Before, it was penicillin, penicillin, penicillin and possibly steroids. Through the years there has been more resistance to medication and antibiotics.”

Strait continued: “Nursing is a tough job. I love it and it’s been a great career for me. Fulton County is very fortunate that we have a population that respects health care and respects what our nurses do for them. In bigger commercialized hospitals in larger cities, patents have lost their respect for health care. There is rarely a thank you, and they have expectations. Nurses have the stress of knowing every decision they make, every medication they give could potentially harm a patient, or if there is a bad outcome, they had involvement in it. That’s something that a good nurse carries on their shoulders.

Strait also addressed the nursing gender issue: “I was one of three males in my nursing class in 2008. It was unusual for Hagerstown Community College to have three males in one class. Every year there are more males graduating. We have four male nurses that work here.”

He concluded: “Nursing is so expansive. It’s one of the few careers with vast points of direction with so many paths.” ■

2016

May 2016: FCMC Rehabilitation Services opened a new location in Orbisonia with occupational and physical therapies offered. June 2016: New patient portal provides easy and secure access to healthcare information. June 2016: Received a $50,000 grant from PA Department of Health for the construction of a greenhouse and development of a sensory integration program for Long Term Care residents. The greenhouse was dedicated in memory of Eugene Lake, a long-time FCMC employee.

FEB. MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY

July 2016: Susan G. Komen-Pittsburgh for Breast Health awarded the FCMC Foundation two different grants totaling $40,352. The first was for a Breast Health Advocate position and the second was designated for Spa Days – a new program offered to encourage patients. AUG. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC.

Oct. 20, 2016: Groundbreaking for the Center for Advanced Medicine (CAM). As part of the “Moving Forward: The Center for Advanced Medicine” campaign, board members of the Wilbur C. and Betty Lea Henderson Foundation were on hand to present the lead gift of $1 million for the $20 million project.