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This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Lois Pounds on July 3, 2007 by Jessica Roseberry as part of the Women in Duke Medicine Oral History Exhibit.
Duration: 03:32:19
Pounds discusses her interest in nursing; the career possibilities for those interested in nursing in 1955; her graduate coursework in nursing; working; her extended visit to her sister in Syria; her Master's of Letters; the return to her job; medical school; the impressions of women in medical school at the time; the desire to care for patients and still advance in career; other women in her medical school class; working at the University of Pittsburgh; Dr. C. Everett Coop; Boston Children's Hospital; the potential of working at Harvard; coming to Duke; Dr. Samuel Katz, chair of Pediatrics; Durham upon her arrival; the small size of the Department of Pediatrics upon her arrival; being in demand because of the small size of the department; working in the child development clinic and neonatology; directing the outpatient pediatric clinic; her changes to the physician schedules in the clinic to facilitate patients' time; the African-American patient population in clinic; the lack of time for research; other women in the department doing research; committee work; Dr. Hans Lowenbach inviting her to be on the Medical Care Committee; the business of the Medical Care Committee; the committee creating termination rules; the politics of the medical center in the 1970s; the overruling of the bylaws created by the committee; new policy; serving on the Admissions Committee; the small number of women on the committee; female committee members going to Wellesley, Smith, and Mount Holyoke; the organized nature of the Wellesley program; the less organized nature of Smith; the difficulty of interviews at Mount Holyoke; the international reputation of Dr. Rebecca Buckley; introducing Dr. Fred Rosen to Dr. Rebecca Buckley; being a woman and often being asked to be on committees because of this; the surprise of being asked to join the Young Men's Committee on Hospital Affairs; the social dynamics of being a female on the Young Men's Committee on Hospital Affairs; serving on committees for the building of Duke North Hospital; other women on the faculty she remembers at the time [early 1970s]; the difficult time for women in obstetrics; the salary discrepancies at the time for being single with no family to support; the growth of the outpatient department; the difficulty of managing the outpatient department at the time due to increased demand; the stability of her position at Duke; Pediatrics treated differently than Medicine at Duke; doing cultures themselves in Pediatrics; being invited to look at other positions at other medical centers; the experience of touring other medical centers in this capacity; her visit to Fort Defiance in this capacity; her visit to the University of Pittsburgh in this capacity; meeting Dr. Timothy Oliver, her future husband, at University of Pittsburgh; going to University of Pittsburgh; Jack Paradise's research at University of Pittsburgh; her return to Duke in 1987; changes in Duke over the time she was gone; the improvement of the Department of Pediatrics at Duke over the time she was gone; Dr. Charles Putman; working in the admissions office; the increases in female applicants while working in admissions at Pittsburgh; her position as advisory dean; serving on Faculty Women's Committee; lobbying for women in administrative leadership positions; lobbying for sexual harassment policy; being invisible as a female in medical school; the sleeping quarters in medical school; the culture of University of Pittsburgh; coming to Duke because of Vietnam War; Dr. Susan Dees; specific women in Duke Medical Center; working with Dr. Jane Elchlepp and others on the design of Duke Hospital North; Dr. Elchlepp's role in planning Duke Hospital North; being set up on dates in early days at Duke; and the characterization of time at Duke. The transcription of this interview was made possible by a grant from the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation. Includes 4 master and 4 use CDs.