Research on Nursing Functions in Three Alabama Hospitals

Abstract

munity in southern Alabama-Noah, we shall call it. Noah's hospital, situated on the main highway, looks peacefully over the town on one side and cotton fields on the other. The tranquil setting is enhanced by the rural family groups that sit, in the summertime, beneath the pines on the hospital lawn with market baskets of fried chicken and potato salad brought from home. Sick friends and relatives of these families are cared for in a new 30-bed hospital which maintains a staff of 50 employees and modern equipment for their use. In the northern part of Alabama is Cressville, a somewhat larger city that has a rich historical background. Handsome ante-bellum homes and modern industrial plants may be seen on the same street. The county in which it is located is one of the outstanding farm areas in the southeastern states. Amid the bustle of this rapidly growing city is Cressville Hospital. The old building, with its limited capacity of 100 beds, and a small group of 100 workers faithfully serve a population far too large for them. On the southern boundary of Alabama we find a large metropolis, very old, which we shall call Alabama City. The area's population has grown spectacularly in the last five years, and industries continue to locate in the city. Large mansions, surrounded by moss-draped magnolias with Rooms for Rent signs in the spacious yards, evidence the meeting of old and new. On a 70-acre plot near one of the oldest streets, the Alabama City Hospital, a modern 285-bed structure is set apart from the busy city life by spacious grounds planted with azalea and camellia bushes, dogwood and redbud trees. This is a compact, efficient community-populated with its patients, doctors, nurses, students, technicians, and approximately 400 other workers who, in their various jobs, look after the operation and maintenance of the hospital. After your first visits to Noah, Cressville, and Alabama City you would have these bits of information about the communities and their hospitals. If you were to stay a while longer, however, you would discover a great deal more about how these three hospitals with their physicians, nurses, and technicians really function. This is what our research team actually did. A person trained in social science research lived approximately six weeks in each of the three hospitals. During this time information on hospital operation, and on the status, roles, and attitudes of personnel, was gathered by observing actual work situations, through informal conversations and formal interviews with employees, and by means of questionnaires.