Your Hospital-This Day in Norwood History-January 19, 1961

‘Norwood Hospital welcomes the 19 students from the Henry O. Peabody School who have begun their clinical training, coming to the hospital at present on Tuesday and Friday mornings. The students will .akc on ward duties gradually during the first five months at the school, after which they begin the regular affiliation with the hospital for the next ten months. The women enrolled in the first class average in age from 17 to 43, and they are residents of the following towns. Norwood, Walpole, East Walpole, Dedham, Canton, Wrentham, Bellingham, Plainville, Medfield, North Attleboro, and Martha’s Vineyard One young lady even left sunny Florida for chilly New England to take the course Miss Dorothy Conger, whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Conger are former Norwood residents and are now living in Naples, Florida, is residing with relatives here while she is preparing to become a licensed practical nurse.

Once upon a time a hospital was literally a pretty colorless place — nothing but white in the rooms, in the operating room and for all uniforms. Not so anymore. Now we have walls painted in colors, printed drapes on the windows, and even the operating room is all a soft gray-green shade. As for uniforms, there are many different colors designating the duties of the wearers. Sparkling white of course for the nurses — we hope that never changes — except for those working in the operating room or nursery, who wear the soft green. Occasionally we see a nurse popping on a yellow gown over her uniform, which means she is caring for someone “on precautions” (contagious). The volunteer hostesses look so cheerful —and are — in cherry red. The practical nurse students are becoming known by their new blue uniforms trimmed with white.

The women who do such a good job keeping the hospital shining clean are in aqua, also trimmed with white. In the Dietary Department we see white again worn by the dietitian, the chefs and assistants. Others who serve the food in the diet kitchens and in the cafeteria have good-looking blue and white striped dresses with matching caps. Coming to the laboratory and X-ray departments, we see the white coats and uniforms again Saturday mornings another color is added when a group of senior girl scouts don pretty, pink and white aprons while they arrange flowers and do various tasks for the patients and nurses. The variety of colors is welcome change from the monotonous white and it helps the patient to identify the many people who are serving him.

The electric transformer vault, which is a part of the new storage building will house the heavy transformer and switching equipment that channels electric power to all departments of the hospital. Over one-third mile of lead-covered underground cable was used to connect the transformer vault to the town power supply. To give some idea of the amount of electricity used in the hospital, compare your yearly bill to that of $20,000 paid to the town by Norwood Hospital. When the new, wing is in operation, that figure may nearly be doubled.

By Mary Murphy