A group of 87 new interns began orientation at Charity Hospital last week while the institutions' officials searched for ways to free the young doctors from "scut work."
"Scut work," explained J2c. Louis Burroughs, hospital assistant director, "is the interns' word for small, time-consuming jobs they have to do because the hospital hasn't sufficient staff to handle a lot of routine work."
Scut work is also one of the reasons Charity Hospital failed to fill its quota of 126 interns.
THE OTHER reason, low salary, was remedied by the current session of the Legislature when it raised interns pay from $125 to $175 a month. However, interns select their hospitals in the fall, before the Legislature meets.
If scut work is such a probi-lem, why did even 87 medical school graduates choose Charity Hospital?
One new intern, Dr. James L. Bradford Jr., a graduate "of Louisiana State University Medical School and a native of Alexandria, explained, "Of course, we've all talked about scut work, but I don't think it outweighs the value of the terrific learning experience Charity Hospital offers."
ANOTHER NEW intern, Dr. John F. Tannehill, a native of New Orleans and graduate of Tulane University Medical School, added: "There are a lot of things you could do for the patient if so much time didn't have to be spent on minor tasks. Even so, there are few places that can offer as much experience and opportunity to a young doctor as this hospital."
The interns explained that scut work can include having to do their own laboratory work, running to look for x-rays, wheeling patients to and from conferences, problems arising from the hospital's nursing shortage and not having equipment at hand, with no one to go get it.
THERE ARE some, Dr. Burroughs pointed out, who say these things have always been part of an intern's life at Charity Hospital. However, he added, there is a new com-
petitive factor today in intern recruiting.
"A total of about 7,500 medical students graduated from medical schools this June," he said. "There are 12,000 accredited openings for interns so a graduate who wants to can shop around for a private hospital paying a fancy salary with plenty of staff to handle all routine tasks."
New interns are quick to point out, though, that Chanty Hospital offers a compensating factor — responsibility for patients and opportunities to learn not often found in private institutions.
"EACH OF OUR interns," said Dr. Burroughs, "is responsible for two wards. A ward contains 10 to 12 patients. In addition, if there is rapid turnover in his wards, an intern may see 175 or 200 patients within a three-month period.- The experience of treating such a variety of patients and diseases is hard to measure in money." -
Dr. Burroughs said the ones who lose the most when the hospital fails to fill its quota of interns are residents who are taking advanced specialized training in their chosen field.
"When we can't cover the hospital," he stated, "residents have to be taken away from their consultations and
advanced work on diagnoses to do work on the wards."
DR. BURROUGHS said he believes there are two feasible solutions to the problem of scut work.
One a short-range solution, is to make better use of available personnel. Several studies are being carried out by the administration toward that end, he stated.
The other solution, he said, is to make the training that students from LSU and Tulane Medical Schools receive at Charity as pleasant as possible.
"THESE STUDENTS are
the interns of tomorrow," Dr. Burroughs noted. "They, too have been often used for tasks that should be performed by other personnel.
ufy
Unfilled
"We're going to come a lot closer to filling our quota every year," he stated, "when we can start giving these students more time with the patients and less time working in the laboratories."
The overall picture might have been best summed up, however, by Dr. Bradford who I visited two other hospitals before deciding on Charity for his internship.
"My final decision was Charity Hospital and neither the money nor the scut work were prime factors as far as I was concerned. I was considering what would make me a better physician."
PHOTO: DR. JOHN F. TANNEHILL, left, and DR. JAMES L. BRADFORD JR., new interns who reported for duty at Charity Hospital July 1, watch CAROL MEDINA, R.N., prepare an injection for a patient. Interns and nurses are two of the categories in short supply at the hospital.
