Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.

At this point of my duty at Camp LeJeune, I had learned the previous CO had been ineffective due to alcoholism. No wonder the place was such a mess.  We were blessed with a new CO wo was hell on wheels. He later became US Surgeon General. His office was often referred to as “the pressure chamber”. In addition to this one very tough and demanding CO, was added a Chief Nurse that was also hell on wheels. She was promoted to Navy Captain in 9 years. She had served some time in the Army Nurse Corps, but left and spent her time getting additional education. Then she transferred to the Navy.  It was a privilege to work for her. There was no doubt in my mind I better not screw up or there would be hell to pay. As it turned out, she somehow recognized I was a person that could get a job done. One job that blew me away was to be put in charge of all the ice machines in the hospital. My husband was bewildered. He asked me if that wasn’t the job of the dietary department. I told him I was sure she had attempted to go the route and found it unsuccessful. I had to scratch my head trying to figure this one out. Then it occurred to me all of the ice machines were likely highly contaminated because no policy had been established.  You can imagine how popular I was when I shut down every ice machine in this 300 bed hospital and sent a notice that ice would be retrieved from the galley until further notice. All ice machines were drained and cultured. Same bacteria I found in the isolates in the Nursery. I looked for and found some ambulatory patients that would be willing to follow my instructions on how to properly clean the ice machines. Warning them following the cleaning, I would again do cultures to determine how effective the cleaning process was. Now, as this was a Marine base, I of course had the finest of the fine to help me accomplish this unusual task. My second cultures were great. In the meantime I wrote strict protocol regarding removing ice from the machines that was issued to every ward as well as posted on each machine.

Problem solved but to maintain a bacteria free situation all ice machines were cultured on a monthly basis. If need be, action was taken to clean them.

In addition to some of these unusual tasks I was assigned as Supervisor of all the Medical Wards. That didn’t mean I had a soft daytime job, as all Supervisors had to take their turns at supervision on the evening, night and weekend shifts. Those assignments resulted in walking at least 10 miles in 8 hours. As time moved on Captain Cannon assigned me to the Emergency Room. I have already stated how much the ER corpsmen looked forward to having me in the system.

Well, it all turned out very well. After about 2 months of figuring out I wasn’t going to crash and burn, the Sr. Corpsmen asked if he could speak to me privately. A private place consisted of the utility room where bedpans and emesis basins are emptied and cleaned.

A great office environment. He said “Mrs. Grice, don’t you know what we have been trying to do to you”. I just smiled and said “Hasn’t worked, has it”. He started to laugh and said, you are right, it hasn’t worked and now we have decided we not only like you but also want to keep you around. You are one very tough lady.  Together we turned that ER into a spotless part of the hospital. Bless their hearts. They even scrubbed the wheels on the gurneys.

One day we received a radio transmission from Bldg. 15 that a gun shot wound of the abdomen was headed in our direction with an ETA of 5 min. I called the Surgical watch and much to my dismay, he told me he was too busy and hung up on me. I looked at my corpsmen who said “What happened?” I said if you can believe this that SOB told me he was too busy and hung up on me. What was I to do, said they. I headed for the door straight towards the office of the CO and said you are soon to find out.  I ran into the Executive Officers office, under protest of the receptionist and explained the situation to the Capt.

He came out from around his desk like he had been shot out of a cannon, saying get back to the ER. I will take care of this situation. As they wheeled the patient into the ER the CO and the Exec. came to our aid. Emergency care followed by transfer to the OR.  There is no way I can tell all the ER stories. Many were grim and bloody.  The best story of all was when I was assigned to plan and implement the party for the Nurse Corps anniversary. I was so busy I had forgotten to make a hair appointment. When I went to the Chief Nurse and requested to leave work 15 min. early, she said NO. When I returned to the ER it was evident I had tears in my eyes and was very frustrated. Corpsmen to the rescue. That fantastic group of my team managed to (without me noticing) set every clock in the ER up 15 minutes. One of them took my car keys out of my purse, ran over to the parking lot and brought my car back to right behind the ER, off to one side of course, so I wouldn’t see it.  Right on schedule they informed me it was time to leave to have my hair done. I immediately looked at my watch, only to be informed, my watch was wrong. As we were not allowed in town in a working uniform my Sr. corpsmen removed the oak leaves from my collar saying he was keeping them as a souvenir and told me I was now a civilian and I needed to get moving. As I continued to protest he said “Does one of us have to go over the hill to get you to the beauty shop on time?  We want our nurse to be the prettiest lady at the party.

While assigned to the ER, I was also called to the Nursing office and asked to go to Ward 4 (the Dependent ward) and straighten out that mess. I asked how long I had and she said 4 days. My reply was Capt. It took them 40 years to screw up that ward and you want me to fix it in 4 days. And how am I supposed to justify my presence. She looked at me calmly and said, “You’ll think of something”. I justified my presence by telling them I wasn’t busy in the ER and came to help them.  Now if you really want to know what is going on with patient care, answer lights. That is when I discovered there wasn’t a single roll of toilet paper on the entire ward. I of course had to threaten the supply department as it wasn’t the normal ordering day but I did indeed have 2 cases of toilet paper on my door step in 30 min. At home that night, my husband asked what great accomplishments I had done during the day. I rendered my Marine husband speechless when I announced I had ordered 2 cases of toilet paper (Using different language of course) I explained you couldn’t take care of patients very well if you can’t even wipe their behinds. I followed my 4 days of discovery with a report to the Chief Nurse. All my suggestions were implemented.  During these 4 years, my husband was deployed twice.  And as things don’t always work out time wise for one reason or another, it was my task to sell the house, contact the movers and supervise them for 5 days, while I was on night duty.

Husband arrived when everything was completed. On the 4^th of July 1971 we gathered up Gigi and Fifi and headed across country again for duty in Hawaii. I had considered leaving my 2 poodles with my parents in Nebraska rather than 120 day of quarantine.

I quickly changed my mind when we were greeted by 4 German Shepard’s as we drove into the driveway of my parents home a mile north of Elkhorn, NE. After a brief visit we were off to San Francisco to continue our trip to Hawaii.

We arrived early to look for and purchase a home. I manage to get pretty lucky in finding the perfect house. I had found a fantastic Real Estate Agent advertised in Navy Times. He was a retired Army Col and he and his wife remained friends for years to come.

My husband was to be stationed at Camp Smith and my duty station was Sr. Nurse Corps Officer at Barbers Point, Hawaii. Once again I was greeted with an incredible amount of undesirable situations. And yes once again the problem was the previous Sr. Medical Officer had an alcohol problem. His replacement was pretty special. He had served with the space program during all the Apollo space flights. The Nurse Corps Officer I relieved had been less than effective. However I had an E8 Corpsman that was fantastic. Mary Ann was delighted to find out she finally had a Nurse that was willing to deal with difficult situations. And I was equally delighted to have a Senior Chief that was totally squared away.

These were my problems.

!.  A very dirty dispensary.

2. Sterile technique being used was out dated.

3  Steam sterilizer had as far as I could determine never been checked to see if it was

     effective in sterilizing items that were placed in it for sterilization.

4. Sterility of emergency trays was out dated by a year or more.

5. No crash cart in the ER. (Only a small tray with a few emergency items on it that was

    kept locked up in the Pharmacy).     

6. Ambulances were a disaster, as well as the equipment contained in them.

 

As well as many other problems I can’t currently remember.

My solution to solving the lack of cleanliness was pretty interesting if not brilliant.  I had noted all the staff were Snoopy fans. Every single one of them had a Snoopy pin on their lab jackets. So, I said to Mary Ann, how talented are you and perhaps your roommate. I want to construct a banner that says the Snoopy award.  It was a total hit. Snoopy standing by his doghouse doing a white glove inspection, complete with swagger stick under his arm.  You never saw a place get so clean so fast in your life. Everyone was competing for the Snoopy Award to post over the doorway of his or her department.  I didn’t even have to be a butthead and issue orders. Competition did the job for me and I was one very happy Senior Nurse. At least in the cleanliness area.  All in all, once I instilled a sense of pride in the entire staff, everything else pretty much fell in place without too much grief.  Except getting a crash cart. I had to pound on the Adm. Officer’s desk every single morning and say loudly. “CRASH CART”. He finally got the picture I was not about to give up, so authorized the purchase of a crash cart.  Having previous Emergency Room experience, I knew exactly what the contents should be and I did have to order a few additional items. It was sealed with a wire seal and when used it must be inventoried and the inventory signed before they could get a new seal to replace the one that had to be broken to use the equipment.

One funny thing before I depart. I had at this point indeed turned age 40. I had gone to the pharmacy to pick up an Rx for a patient and as it was a controlled drug I had to sign and nearly give my life’s history. Age?  When I wrote 40 I suddenly realized I had indeed turned 40. I was in shock.  For my 40^th birthday my husband had given me a beautiful, very rare 2-karat diamond. It is silver in color. The given name. “Natural silver Mink”.

Chapter V coming up.

A person who moves mountains begins by carrying away small stones.  Chinese Proverb.