Nursing group marks 40th year
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
By Katy Buchanan, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
When the Visiting Nurse Association of Butler County was established 40 years ago, it had one nurse. The mission was to provide care for people not sick enough to be in the hospital, who might need a nurse to look in on them.
There were no such things as managed care or laptop computers. Sick people went into the hospital and stayed for weeks, recuperating from illness or surgery. When they came home, they needed supportive care like dressing changes or blood pressure checks.
Times change.
Today, reflecting its expanded coverage area and mission, the group, now called Visiting Nurses Association, Western Pennsylvania, serves Armstrong, Butler and parts of Allegheny, Beaver and Mercer counties with 150 nurses. It offers hospice care and telemonitoring. Nurses keep up with their paperwork using laptop computers. Patients just home from the hospital are sicker because of shorter stays, often needing more advanced services such as intravenous fluids.
What hasn't changed is the one-on-one nature of care.
Nursing group marks 40th year
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