Hospital displays are all about the nurses

Published 10:34 pm Sunday, July 19, 2009

Hospitals can be way stations for patients and families.

How nice that Florence Hansen of Everett cared enough to decorate both campuses of Providence Regional Medical Center Everett.

One can hardly miss her first exhibits at the Colby Campus. One is in the 14th Street lobby, and the Nord Exhibit is along the corridor adjoining the 13th and 14th street lobbies, across from the surgery waiting room.

They feature fabulous murals of buildings and nurses that tell the history of the hospital, starting at 1994 and going backward. Four Sisters of Providence came to Everett from Montreal, Canada, to enhance medical care.

It’s a pictorial mural of memory books with portraits honoring residents who played significant roles in the hospital history.

At the Pacific Campus, the newer display includes mannequins of nurses in old-fashioned uniforms. Written words are informative and fascinating.

Thanks to funding from Providence General Foundation, there are also artifacts from old laboratories and the innards of doctor bags.

Both hospitals had nursing schools during the 1900s. All three displays are about those schools as well as histories of the Everett Community College nursing program and a cadet nursing program during World War II.

In Snohomish County, there were more than 100 cadet students.

Photos and words are mounted on walls and in glass display cases at the Pacific exhibit. There are three kiosks with artifacts including a metal ether mask used to administer general anesthesia, a lancet to draw blood and a trumpet stethoscope.

Providence clothing was created by a retired nun from Sisters of Providence. Kay Zuanich of Everett donated a bib-style uniform.

Browse along and see if you recognize photographs of nursing students.

A small task force designing displays, including Hansen, worked with Andy Hall and Devin Saylor of Botesch, Nash and Hall Architects in Everett. Fabrication and construction was done by Kirtley Cole Associates in Everett.

Hansen found a mannequin to dress in the basement of Renee’s in Everett.

“I learned so much along the way,” she said. “I did the writing and the research. I had help from former nurses.”

She already had a ton of institutional knowledge. Hansen was the first director of volunteer services at the then-General Hospital. She left a job with the Everett Chamber of Commerce to run the hospital’s volunteer program and later worked in marketing.

Following in Hansen’s footsteps, Cheri Russum is a spokeswoman for Providence.

“The exhibits honor the rich heritage of our outstanding nurses,” Russum said. “Nurses truly are the backbone of this medical center and this community. They always have been.”

Hansen moved to Everett from Philadelphia with her husband, Ben, who worked in public relations for Scott Paper Co.

When she was asked in 1994 to write the histories of the hospitals, she scrounged for archival material stashed in rental houses and spread through different departments in the hospital. She became very familiar with the Sisters of Providence archive in West Seattle.

“I wrote on the seventh floor in two former patient rooms,” Hansen said.

After she retired from public relations, she managed the hospital thrift store.

Florence Hansen was nothing if not modest while we visited near the Pacific displays, which include a Florence Nightingale lamp.

“This was a waiting room,” she said. “Now it’s a nice little diversion.”

Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.