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Volume2/1989_May31UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER Patients' Spiritual Needs- Focus of Pastoral Care Now You Can Call Them 'Dr.' Doctor of Medicine degrees were awarded to 98 students at University of Utah School of Medicine commencement May 27, at Kingsbury Hall. Alan R. Nelson, M.D., associate clinical professor of internal medicine at the U, and president-elect of the American Medical Association, delivered the address. His topic was "Humanism in Medicine: The Commitment to Care." In addition to the medical degrees, the school conferred 39 degrees in the basic sciences, including eight Ph.D.' s, 22 Master of Science and nine Bachelor of Science degrees in medical laboratory science in the Department of Pathology. University Hospital's Pastoral Care Advisory Council selected a new chair, The Reverend Bonnie J. Roddy, a priest at All Saints Episcopal Church, at its recent meeting. Dedicated to ensuring that the spiritual needs of U Hospital patients are met, the council is supported jointly by James J. McNamara, D. S. W., director of social work; John Dwan, community relations director, and coordinated by Ann Warnick, coordinator of visitor information. Other hospital representatives on the council are Willam R. Keye, M. D., associate professor and chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility; Claire Stanley, R. N., prenatal education coordinator, nursing services, and Jed Erickson, M. S. W., social work crisis unit. Vice chair of the council is Rev. David Crockett, Cottonwood Presbyterian Church. Clergy members are Rev. Thomas Meersman, Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Madeleine; Rev. Don Shafer, Cornerstone Community Church; Rabbi Fred Wenger, Congregation Kol Ami; President Kent Wright, University Branch, The Church of Latter- Day Saints, and Pastor Stanley Smith, First Baptist Church, who replaces Rev. Carol West, Mt. Tabor Lutheran Church, whose term just expired. Clergy membership rotates among denominations in the community, with new representatives selected by the clergy on the council. Members serve two years. 'The council seeks ways to provide the clergy with the most complete and accurate information available about patients who wish to be visited. We need the help of individuals working with the patients and encourage them to call me at x2666 with such requests," Ms. Warnick said. Magazines Needed Reading material still is needed for various hospital areas. Gather up all the extras strewn about the house and bring them to the information desk. Nominations in Order for Stand-out Employees Exceptional employees deserve recognition. We all know a fellow employee who does a great job. Nominate him or her for Employee of the Month! Each month, an outstanding U Medical Center employee is selected for this honor, which is open to all employees except managers at or above the service director level. Criteria for Employee of the Month are: The employee must have at least one year of service at the U Medical Center. The nominee should exhibit extra pride in his or her job. The employee should have an outstanding record of attendance and punctuality The employee's service director must agree with the nomination. Those selected for the monthly honor receive a $ 50 U. S. Savings Bonds, a recognition certificate and go to lunch with George Belsey, Executive Director University Hospital. All nominations must be in writing. Forms are available in personnel, room 1A1 and community relations, room 2753. Researchers Evaluate Studies of Breast-Cancer Patients Women with breast cancer that has not yet invaded the lymph nodes may have new treatment options to prevent the disease from recurring, according to results of four major breast cancer clinical trials, one of which included investigators at the Utah Regional Cancer Center, based at University of Utah Hospital. The trial reports, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, show that women receiving chemotherapy or hormonal therapy are more likely to remain disease-free during the first three or four years after primary therapy(mastectomy or lumpectomy and radiation therapy). Harmon J. Eyre, M.D., professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine and immediate past president of the American Cancer Society, was a principal investigator involved in one of the trials, three of which were funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The fourth trial was headquartered in Switzerland. Physicians at U Hospital, Veterans Administration Medical Center, LDS Hospital and several community hospitals collaborated with several cancer centers. The experiments sought ways to reduce the mortality among the 25-30 percent of node-negative patients whose disease recurs. The treated women did better in all studies. Patients who were disease- free at three to four years because of additional chemotherapy or hormone treatment ranged from 6-15 percent overall in the NCI-sponsored studies. 'Two things can reduce a woman's risk of dying from this disease," Dr. Eyre said. "One is finding the tumor early, by physical examination or mammogram screening. The second- and this is where the trial findings are especially significant- is by getting good treatment afterward. "Women diagnosed with node-negative breast cancers should be encouraged to discuss the options for additional treatment with informed physicians, with the understanding that each case must be assessed on an individual basis," he added. Node-negative women generally have received only surgery or surgery and radiation because it was thought cancer spread in an orderly fashion from the breast to adjacent lymph nodes and then to other parts of the body. Now it is understood that, even if cancer is not detected in underarm lymph nodes, cancer cells may have gone to distant parts of the body and may cause illness years later. Systemic treatments, such as hormone therapy or chemotherapy, are the only way to reach such scattered cells. The NCI acknowledges that more time must elapse before it can be determined whether the additional treatment resulted in improved survival rate in addition to reduction of disease recurrence. Among questions still to be answered, the NCI noted, are whether additional therapy will benefit women who underwent primary treatment more than six weeks earlier, and whether a combination of chemotherapy and hormonal therapy would be more effective than individual therapies alone. Reproductive Medicine Center Opens The doors of the new Reproductive Medicine, Diagnostic and Treatment Center, near 2 North, opened May 17 and patients are seen al the centralized location. Construction has been completed; some furnishings are still to come. Mother- to- be Janette Lewis, R. N., operating room and 2 North, tested out the non stress test room with the help of Martha Sleutel, R. N., clinical specialist for the new center, and Neil K. Kochenour, MD., associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Utah School of Medicine, the center's director. "The new center is operated jointly by the Radiology Department and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology to treat a number of patients with various reproductive problems," said Dr. Kochenour. " These patients will be seen in one centralized location that utilizes the expertise of both the obstetrics and the imaging personnel at University Hospital," he added