Rusty Brandon managed the overnight shift at Union Hospital for forty-five years. Her all-night routine started in 1953 when she assumed responsibility for supervising healthcare services for the Elkton Hospital on the late shift.
Arriving a little before the 11 pm staff clocked in, Rusty received a report from the evening supervisor. Then she made phone calls to fill staffing shortages, examined patient charts, and checked for special instructions from the administrator and director of nursing—all things to be taken care of immediately as those long nights got underway.
After Nurse Brandon finished the preliminaries, she made rounds to ensure that exterior doors were locked and visited nurses’ stations to confer on any medical issues that might come.
Babies and emergencies came at all hours of the day and night. So as the lone house supervisor, she covered unstaffed units such as labor and delivery and the operating room. If something came up, she was more or less on her own. Also, all admissions went through Rusty.
By 11 pm in those early decades, clinical specialties and support services—radiology, lab, and housekeeping—clocked out before midnight. While struggling with all these duties, the work was often interrupted if someone buzzed to get in at the loading dock, as Rusty was the only circulating person in the facility.
On these minute-by-minute shifts, nothing was routine, as the house nurse also provided coverage in the “accident ward.” Every so often in the wee hours of the night, the buzzer at the locked emergency entrance chimed as someone needed urgent medical help. The ringing heard throughout the hushed hospital sent Nurse Brandon rushing to the first floor to let in a suffering person. Then, she got to work as an emergency room nurse since the staff member for this unit clocked out at 11 pm.
Also serving as the Elkton ambulance dispatcher, she answered the phone when someone needed emergency transport. While passing through silent corridors to monitor operations, the emergency phone occasionally rang, the jarring jingle interrupting the pre-dawn calm that had settled over the hospital.
After getting the address and finding out about the urgent situation, Rusty glanced at a Singerly Fire Company duty roster. This list provided the names of the Singerly volunteers on call for that month, first responders such as Jack Jamison, Speck Slaughter, and Henry Schaffer.
After Rusty dialed the crew, Singerly took it from there, so she returned to the floors. That was until the first responders radioed in to say that the ambulance would arrive in a few minutes.
That message caused Rusty to rush down and unlock the accident ward to receive the incoming patient. Once the sick or injured person arrived, she triaged the patient, deciding if the case needed a doctor immediately. The 1947 University of Maryland School of Nursing graduate handled care until doctors arrived for morning rounds. If the patient required a physician immediately, she called the on-duty practitioner at home and waited while she cared for the serious cases.
After providing emergency care, it was back to making rounds or running to do this or that—perhaps a delivery person was at the loading dock. Or Dr. Hsu arrived early and was at the main entrance waiting to get in. Doors had to be locked and unlocked, and in the years before, there was a security guard, she doubled in that role.
Finally, with the first light of day, it was time to get the morning report ready and hand the multifaceted job over to a cluster of people as they clocked in: charge nurses, supervisors, administrators, medical technicians, operating room staff, central supply personnel, custodians, and clerks.
Nothing was routine on those lonely overnight tours—the needs changed hour by hour, and Rusty handled whatever happened. And she was on her own, waiting for the dawn and that cadre of dayshift supervisory and operational staff.
After forty-five years in this responsible and demanding job of taking care of the healthcare of Cecil Countians during the overnight hours at Union Hospital, Rusty finished the final stint in 1998. A lot had changed since the young nurse, a few years out of school, began her career: doctors and nurses staffed specialty departments around the clock; helicopters rushed trauma patients to shock trauma; and security guards and support staff relieved the night supervisor of those chores.
Although technology, pharmacology, specialization, and Union Hospital changed, there was one reassuring, consistent element to inpatient care in Cecil County. It was Nurse Brandon. Over a career that spanned five decades, Rusty Brandon had worked under four directors of nursing and became a fixture in Union Hospital and Cecil County. The variety of tasks the nursing supervisor had to master was enormous in those early decades.
For Additional Photos, see the Rusty Brandon Album on Facebook
Great analysis jane. A wonderful supervisor, worked her butt off, so many responsibilities. I can remember her humer. A great person.