Anna Louise Tittman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Anna Tittman 3 3
A. Yes.
Q. But in Sphgfield you told rre forL night duty, thereld be one person
on...
A. On a hall.
Q. How many nurses would that be total during the nfght?
A. Well, there would be floor nurses. We had soma speci graduate private
duty nurses whomthe patients paid $25 aweek, but they w % already graduate
nurses, and they would be msponsible for maybe twentpfour horn. If
the patient was sick enough, well, there might be two s ion-one morning
and one nigbt. Now [today] they have three, you see, have full-time
graduate nursing care.
Q. ht the patient paid extra for this like private
A. Oh, yes. Yes, yes. It is private duty nursing, but
i
e does It in the
hospital Fnstead of in the home. Now I didn't have any o that kind of work.
Mine [graduate private duty] was all in the hone and twent -four hour duty.
And I never had another nurse on with me. I'd sleep when could. That's
the way we all did. Well, I'm getting ahead. I'm graduatmg wself before
I'm thmu@ here. (laughter)
Q. About how many nurses would be on during the day in t hospital here
Fn Springfield?
A. Oh, 1 don't haw. There'd be maybe three functioning pn a floor at a
t*.
Q. So thererd be nine?
A. Of course, the ones who worked at night--there were o
those days . . .
Q. You worked twelve hours?
A. Twelve hours, yes, except when you went off duty in thli: afternoon. You
didn't do much scrubbing in the afternoon. You got that wne in the mrning.
By that, I man scmnbbkg the patient as well as the floor! and the baths,
but we didnlt bathe every patievlt every day.
Oh, I don't think there were mxe than something like thi*y nurses. There
wouldn't be that many on at ni&t, very few at ni&t. Just one for a hall.
Q. When you rotated your shift rylom six-thirty in the morning to six-thifiy
in the evening on day duty, an
1
then did ni@t duty, would you have a half
day off in between there?
A. Yes, yes. I
Q. How would they accomplish that?
I
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