Sick Call Research Articles

The Sick Call and the Drama of Extreme Unction in Irish Folklore

This article examines the priest's sick call in Irish folklore. The sick call normally involved the hearing of the dying person's confession; the administration of extreme unction, the last sacrament that a Roman Catholic was expected to receive; and (if possible) the reception of holy communion, viaticum, food for the journey. Drawing from the large body of stories in the Schools’ Collection (gathered in 1937–8), the article shows how the greatest concern in the popular mindset was ensuring that the priest arrived in time to perform his duties. However, all manner of difficulties awaited him in the exercise of this ministry, from diabolical apparitions to the wiles of other humans, including other priests, who purposefully attempted to thwart his path. In this sense, Irish folk tales dramatize the administration of this sacrament into a rite of passage.

Medical Encounters During the United States Army Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course

IntroductionThe Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) is an extremely physically and mentally demanding 19- to 20-day course designed to determine whether Soldiers are qualified to enter the Special Forces Qualification Course. As a first step to understand medical problems during SFAS, this study examined injuries, illnesses, and activities associated with injuries during the course.Materials and MethodsMedical events during the SFAS course were compiled from Sick Call Trackers (a log of medical encounters maintained by medical personnel in the field) and Chronology of Medical Care (Standard Form 600). Descriptive statistics were calculated for each injury and illness and injuries were compiled by the activities performed when the injuries occurred.ResultsOf the 800 Soldiers who volunteered for the study, 38% (n = 307/800) and 12% (n = 97/800) experienced one or more injuries and/or illnesses, respectively. The most common injuries were blisters and abrasions/lacerations with incidences of 20% (n = 158/800) and 13% (104/800), respectively. The most common illnesses were respiratory infections, other infections, contact dermatitis, and allergies with incidences of 7% (n = 57/800), 2% (n = 14/800), 2% (n = 14/800), and 2% (n = 13/800), respectively. Among all injuries recorded (n = 573), the most common were blisters (46%), abrasions/lacerations (24%), pain (not otherwise specified) (19%), tendonitis (3%), and sprains (3%). Among all illnesses recorded (n = 133), the most common were respiratory infections (56%), allergies (11%), contact dermatitis (11%), and other infections (11%). Most injuries were experienced during land navigation (44%), team events (20%), and foot marching (11%), running (6%), and the obstacle course (5%), but when the estimated time involved for each event was considered, activities with the highest injury rates were the obstacle course (65 injuries/hr), running (27 injuries/hr), the Combat Readiness Assessment (activity involving combat-related tasks) (20 injuries/hr), and foot marching (16 injuries/hr).ConclusionThe major limitations of this investigation were: 1) the low specificity with regard to many of the diagnoses/complaints; and 2) the fact that the medical problems reported here are only those seen by medical care providers and are likely an underestimate of the total morbidity in the SFAS course. Soldiers often self-treat and some may be reluctant to see medical personnel because of how it might affect their rating in the course. Nonetheless, this investigation alerts medical personnel to the injuries and illnesses to expect, and public health workers and leadership with activities to target for injury prevention measures during SFAS.

Sick Call Sets: Material Culture and the Sacraments of the Sick and Dying

Material objects, like religious images and devotional goods, occupied a central place in Catholic religious life prior to the liturgical changes instituted by the Second Vatican Council. Lay Catholics were presented with numerous opportunities to integrate material objects into their private and public expressions of religious devotion, serving to connect them to the divine. One such material object—the sick call set—provided priests and lay Catholics with the necessary tools and religious images for the administration of the sacraments of the sick and dying, rites offered for the maintenance of the soul of the person experiencing physical illness or nearing death. The institutionally prescribed role of this religious good is explored through the complementary reading of both material objects and documents. When read in conjunction with one another, these primary sources reveal the main characteristics of the sick call set's sacramental function, demonstrate the mutually reinforcing obligations and responsibilities placed on lay Catholics and priests in caring for the sick and dying, and the attempt by institutional authorities to control the care of the sick and dying by imposing and disseminating meticulous rules and instructions while simultaneously spiritually empowering the laity through the ownership and arrangement of the set.

Validating Nurse Sick Call Data as a Method of Early Warning Outbreak Response in an Academic Teaching Hospital

Validating Nurse Sick Call Data as a Method of Early Warning Outbreak Response in an Academic Teaching Hospital

Father Oscar Huber, the Kennedy Assassination, and the News Leak Controversy: A Research Note

Notes and DocumentsFather Oscar Huber, the Kennedy Assassination, and the News Leak Controversy: A Research Note Patrick Huber (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Father Oscar Huber pointing to the entry in the Holy Trinity Catholic Church's Sick Call Register where he recorded the details of his administration of Last Rites to President John F. Kennedy at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Under the column of "Remarks," which he usually left blank, the Vincentian priest had written: "Assassinated in Downtown Dallas." Courtesy of the DeAndreis-Rosati Memorial Archives, DePaul University, Special Collections and Archives Department, Chicago, Illinois. [End Page 380] On November 22, 1963, the Very Rev. Oscar L. Huber, C. M. administered the conditional last rites of the Roman Catholic Church to the mortally wounded Pres. John F. Kennedy. The Vincentian priest's religious service that day in Dallas, Texas, unexpectedly thrust him into the national spotlight, as the New York Times, the Dallas Morning News, and several other metropolitan newspapers interviewed him about his last moments with the slain president. But the modest, soft-spoken priest found neither glory nor honor in his service that day, because Time magazine correspondent Hugh Sidey and several other members of the national news media reported that he was responsible for leaking the news of the president's death several minutes before the official White House announcement. What began as Father Huber's proverbial "fifteen minutes of fame" mutated and then stretched into a decade of attention and speculation. The purpose of this research note is to examine the evidence concerning exactly what Father Huber said and did not say about the death of President Kennedy on the afternoon of November 22, 1963. In retrospect, the matter may seem minor, but it was of vital importance to Father Huber. Moreover, it provides yet another example of the chaos and confusion that reigned in Dallas on that fateful day. [End Page 381] Until the day of the assassination, Father Huber had never seen a U.S. president in person. And so, shortly after noon on Friday, November 22, 1963, the seventy-year-old priest walked the three blocks from Holy Trinity Catholic Church where he served as pastor to watch President Kennedy's motorcade pass along the parade route. Only five-feet-five-inches tall, Father Huber had to stand on tiptoe to see over the heads of the other spectators who crowded the sidewalk in front of him along Lemmon Avenue. And, for a brief moment, the priest caught a glimpse of the president. Father Huber thought that President Kennedy noticed his Roman collar and waved to him. After the motorcade was out of sight, Father Huber returned to the parish rectory, eager to share his story of seeing the president with his colleagues. "It was," he later recalled, "a thrilling moment for me."1 By 12:36 P.M., however, everything had changed. Father Huber was eating lunch when Father James N. Thompson, his assistant pastor, burst into the room and gasped, "The president's been shot." A television bulletin soon confirmed that President Kennedy had been wounded and was being transported to nearby Parkland Memorial Hospital, which was located within the Holy Trinity Parish. Because the two priests regularly attended to the spiritual needs of the patients there, Fathers Huber and Thompson raced to the hospital without waiting to be summoned. Shortly after they departed, a Parkland administrator telephoned the rectory at Jacqueline Kennedy's request, asking for a priest to minister to her husband. Someone told him that two priests were already en route to the hospital.2 Swarms of automobiles and curious onlookers had already begun to jam the area surrounding Parkland, so it took the two priests nearly fifteen minutes to reach the emergency room entrance. While Father Thompson parked the car, Dallas police officers escorted Father Huber through the crowd of nearly two hundred bystanders and into the hospital. The scene inside was utter pandemonium. Earlier, at 12:35 P.M., just five minutes after three shots were fired at Dealey Plaza, the Lincoln Continental limousine carrying the fatally stricken President Kennedy and Texas governor John Connally, who was also unconscious and...

Rotators in the Emergency Department: Conference Attendance, Duty Hours Compliance, Sick Call, and Other Issues. A Survey of Academic Emergency Medicine Programs

Study Objectives: To document rules, practices and perceptions regarding Internal Medicine (IM) residents who rotate in emergency departments (EDs), and Emergency Medicine (EM) residents on rotating with other services.

Changes in Women's Health Care Aboard One Ship

Health care needs of women assigned to sea duty may change over time. Determine changes in the obstetrical/gynecological needs of U.S. Navy women assigned to a submarine tender. Retrospective record review of personnel aboard one U.S. Navy ship in 1990 and in 1995. The demographic character of the female crew members changed. Compared with 1990, the women in 1995 were older, more experienced, of higher rank, more likely to use contraception, and more likely to have children. The pregnancy rate dropped from 2.7 to 1.5 per 100 women per month. Sexually transmitted diseases were less frequent, and the "satisfactory Papanicolaou smear" rate increased from 52 to 93%. Both in 1990 and 1995, women utilized Sick Call more often than men. Measurable changes occurred in the obstetrical/gynecological health care needs of women assigned to one ship in 1990 and 1995.

Impact of Dental Sick Call on Combat Effectiveness: The Dental Fitness Class 3 Soldier

Dental sick call can have a significant impact on combat effectiveness, a loss of up to 18,720 man days per division per year. This study identified two target populations that interceptive dental treatment could best be directed toward. They are the E-1 to E-3 pay grades and soldiers in combat arms units. This study also offers dental resources needed to treat various target populations.

The Effects of Changes in Jail Population Densities on Crowding, Sick Call, and Spatial Behavior1

Perceived crowding, rate of sick calls, and use of space were studied among jail inmates. The inmates had been randomly assigned to one of two jail units that were identical in design and management, but varied in population density levels. Initially, population density was rated at capacity on one unit, and over capacity on the other. Data were collected before and after a court order that caused population levels to be decreased on the unit over capacity and increased on the other, so that after the change density on both units was the same. Comparison data were also collected on several other units. The results revealed both absolute and contrast effects for density on inmates. Perceived crowding and sick call rates varied directly with density levels, but also were affected by the direction of shift. That is, when population levels were equal after the change, perceived crowding and sick call rates were higher on the unit that had experienced an increase in density. Also, as population levels increased, there tended to bean increase in isolated passive behavior and a decrease in isolated active behavior in public areas. Implications for crowding research and for jail design and management are discussed.

The Effectiveness of a Comprehensive Appointment System for Military Sick Call in a Large Population: Results of Studies from William Beaumont Army Medical Center

The Effectiveness of a Comprehensive Appointment System for Military Sick Call in a Large Population: Results of Studies from William Beaumont Army Medical Center

The Use of In-Barracks Screeners to Improve Military Sick Call

The Use of In-Barracks Screeners to Improve Military Sick Call

Mood Scales as Predictors of Discharge and Sick Call Visits During Basic Military Training

Mood Scales as Predictors of Discharge and Sick Call Visits During Basic Military Training

Utilization of Medical Services by a Captive Population: An Analysis of Sick Call in a State Prison

Utilization of Medical Services by a Captive Population: An Analysis of Sick Call in a State Prison

Diazepam Use in Military Sick Call

Diazepam Use in Military Sick Call

A Comparative Study of Patient Scheduling Systems for Army Sick Call

Abstract : In April and May 1973, five different scheduling systems for sick call were tested in three troop medical clinics at Ft. Sill, OK, using the following configurations: Troop Clinic A, staggered unit arrival for one month, followed by individual appointment for one month; Troop Clinic B, evening sick call followed by an all-day-no-appointment system and Troop Clinic C, a combination of early afternoon sick call for one month, followed by individual appointments. These systems were compared to the traditional system of holding sick call early in the morning as a mass formation. Patients and unit staff favored the individual appointment, staggered unit, and evening systems. Physicians and troop medical clinics staffs favored the appointment and the morning block systems. Sick call by appointment was shown to be feasible, although the other systems may all be useful under certain circumstances. (Modified author abstract)

Determinants of sickness in marine recruits.

Is the human environment, as expressed by social and cultural attributes of defined groups, a more potent determinant of sickness than the conventionally attributed single causes like microorganisms, individual disposition and proneness to accident or exposure to its risk? These two alternatives can be tested in Marine recruits where the defined, face-to-face group is the platoon, isolated from other platoons but otherwise highly comparable. Sickness in the platoon was indexed by the number of sick calls and each sick call was categorized by the supervising personnel into: a) infectious, b) skin, c) other non-traumatic, d) musculo-skeletal or traumatic, and e) unspecified complaints. Under the single-cause-single-effect hypothesis, differences in amount of sickness between platoons are explained by introductions of infectious diseases or by differences in the drill procedure leading to differential sickness rates of the musculo-skeletal and trauma complaint type. Thus, this hypothesis predicts that in a given platoon a high sickness rate of one complaint type is unlikely to be accompanied by a high rate of another complaint type, unless the two single causes involved both happen to act excessively on the same platoon. Likewise, the hypothesis predicts that the time of peak sick call incidence for one complaint type is unlikely to coincide with the time of peak incidence for another complaint type. The alternative hypothesis—that the cause of increase of a sickness in a recruit group is largely nonspecific—predicts an association between the sick call rates of various complaint types in the same platoon, and a similarity of training stages having peak sick call incidences of the various complaint types. A similar reasoning holds for the time of peak incidence of sickness comparing one platoon with another. In each platoon the respective percentages of sick calls where the recruit was ordered to be admitted to the hospital, to have no duty, to have light duty, or to go back to full duty were essentially similar, and this similarity in relative distributions of recruit disposal was also observed when comparing the various stages of training. This supports the contention that in this study the number of sick calls per platoon is a valid index of sickness in the platoon. A three-way analysis of variance of the number of sick calls per platoon was performed and the main effects due to complaint type, platoon, and stage of training were assessed, as well as their first-order interactions. For all complaint types, the maximum number of sick calls in most of the platoons occurred during the second and third week of training and the minimum number during the sixth and seventh week. The training-stage by complaint-type interaction was small compared to the main effects themselves. In addition, there was a significant main effect due to platoons, whereas the platoon by complaint-type and the platoon by training-stage interactions were small. These findings contradict the single-cause-single-effect and support the alternative hypothesis. The analysis of variance of platoon sickness, as indicated by number of sick calls, provides a test for the two competing hypotheses of causation.

Book Review: Sick Call: A Book on the Pastoral Care of the Physically Ill. By Kenneth Child. SPCK, 1965. xi+199 pp. 12s. 6d.; The Priest: Celibate or Married. By Pierre Hermand. Darton, Longman and Todd, 1965. 144 pp. 6s. 6d.; The Diocesan Priest. By Gustave Thils, translated by Albert J. La Mothe, Jr. Geoffrey Chapman, 1965. 368 pp. 25s

Book Review: <scp>Sick Call</scp>: A Book on the Pastoral Care of the Physically Ill. By Kenneth Child. SPCK, 1965. xi+199 pp. 12s. 6d.; <scp>The Priest: Celibate or Married</scp>. By Pierre Hermand. Darton, Longman and Todd, 1965. 144 pp. 6s. 6d.; <scp>The Diocesan Priest</scp>. By Gustave Thils, translated by Albert J. La Mothe, Jr. Geoffrey Chapman, 1965. 368 pp. 25s

Some Administrative Problems of Sick Call in Penal Institutions

Some Administrative Problems of Sick Call in Penal Institutions