Radcliffe Health Center Caters to Sick, Weary, and Hypochondriacs

"If you have appendicitis, they say its your ovaries," has long been a traditional Radcliffe complaint about one of the most-maligned and least-understood Annex institutions--the Health Center.

Since its founding as a separate unit ten years ago, the Center has had to bear up under the complaints of querelous 'Cliffe girls who, healthy or sick, are never satisfied.

Miss Ann Moore, the present head nurse of the eight-bed infirmary; finds, for example, that one of the most persistent sources of complaints stems from girls who think they are sicker than they really are. The disappointment suffered by a girl who thinks she is seriously, ill and is told she has only a virus can be almost traumatic.

Miss Moore also defends the Center's policy of often making a girl move into the infirmary whether she herself wants to or not. The Center's policy on this has been that the place for a girl with a communicable virus is not in a dormitory, and that Radcliffe girls have a tendency to overwork themselves anyway.

Space Lack

Although the building in which it is located was built in the latter half of the last century, the Center itself is clean and modernly-equipped. Space is the big problem at the Center, however, and plans for the ideal Annex infirmary include provision for so much bed-space that girls aren't sick but merely tired can spend a restful week-end there.

In addition to its common-place functions of diagnosing and treating illnesses, the Health Center provides many other services. Doctors attached to the Center, through years of experience in such affairs, are expert in the untangling of the emotional difficulties or adjustment problems suffered by Radcliffe girls.

Regular Check-ups

The Center's concern for preventative medicine leads it to such steps as the occasional calling in of those girls with a tendency toward any illness, no matter how slight. The health records of all girls are checked over periodically.

Because of its smaller size the Annex infirmary is unable to provide some of the services available at the Harvard Hygiene building. The 'Cliffe Center does provide one unique function, however; it does a slow but regular business in giving blood tests as preliminaries to marriage.