Document wD1e4VZdbaNwkE1eGekzOZqxd

\ In 1943, lire. June Howard vas appointed superintendent of nnrses. On lief 31, 1944 she called us into Chicago for our first nurses? confer ence* Our number had really grown we were now thirteen and how big we feltt All of us were quite new to industrial nursing and only two of us had been with! Brake Shoe non than a year* We were really "probies" all over again* j It was an interesting conference with many questions and much discussion.bojth during and after meetings. We all learned a lot even those those in charge of the sessions. .i ' Five of those in attendance at that first conference are here at this one -[Dr. Hamlin, Louise Mathews,Mr..Dunn,Mildred Gingrich and myself, Ur. John Littlefield who was there transform .later to tne Heeearch Department injUahwah and is now-asetstantr teohnioal director of the ohemieal department; It jra$ also in 1944 that our fivsirsurw^r'lissasl was Issued by the Medical Department, Those of you who have always had a manual to refer to may not realise what this first one meant to us. Of course, some bulletins had already been issued.. For instanoe, there was one on equipment for first aiu rwuis ana another on prooeuure lor preplacement physical' examinations, But many times the ana*'*"' needed were not in a j bulletin or the bulletin that might have the answer was not in the flies* Mow we had a reference and a guide* It was a tremen dous help, j More nuree8 were hired during the next few years and & second nurses1 conference was held in Niagara Falla in 1948* In just four years our nursing staff had doubled and there were twenty-six of us at that second conference, Nine of . that twenty-six are here-today. Cur {Manual had been revised just before the 1948 oonferenoe but we had much to learn. We had three very busy days with much discus sion and swapping of ideas, I think you all have oopies of the-Proceed ings of that conference so you know the wide range of topics discussed. We bjave continued to grow numerically until now our nursing staff consists! of myself and thirty-nine nurses, three times the number at the first conference nine years ago, Twenty-three of these nurses are employed full time with one plant each; nine work part time in one plant each; -six cover two plants each on full time and one nurse covers three plants, |The Medical Department personnel has also grown, In 1941, Dr. Hamlin started oat with a staff of five workers* By 1948, there were, ten and now there are fifteen. These figures include thelndustrial Hygiene Department which as mentioned before is under Dr* Hamlin's super vision just as 1 the nursing department is* So mhch for the physical growth of Brake Shoe's Medical Department, But its physical growth is not What has made it so well- known in the industrial medical field. Rather it la the insistence of Dr* Hamlin, Hr j Given end Ur* Dunn that the emphasis be pl&oed on human relations, on service to the employee, on making Brake Shoe "a better plaoe to work." For that matter, without Ur* Given's staunoh support gpjfl 000134 I