Lois Miller Pilch Papers
Scope and Contents
The majority of the Lois Miller Pilch Collection contains materials written and assembled by Pilch during her long career with the Washington, D.C. Department of Public Health, from 1948 to 1981. Subject areas concern public services for adolescent health and for children with mental and physical disabilities. Global-level program descriptions and reviews complement documentation generated by daily operations. Of particular interest here are case reports describing individuals and family circumstances; use of these items is restricted to IRB-certified researchers.
The collection also contains Pilch's student papers, her master's thesis, professional reports and presentations, and a range of pamphlets and publications concerning maternal, child, and adolescent health. Two charting notebooks used in hospital service from 1937 and 1939 detail medications, treatment regimes, and remarks for identified patients; use of these items is restricted to IRB-certified researchers as well.
Dates
- Creation: Majority of material found in 1948-1981
Biographical / Historical
Edna Lois (Miller) Pilch (1913-2000) was a 1934 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Nursing with a career specialization in Public Health Nursing and Maternal-Child Health. After a number of years as a private duty nurse and a clinical instructor in obstetrics, Pilch joined the Washington, D.C. Department of Public Health, Bureau of Nursing, in 1948. She remained associated with the Department in several capacities -- as a staff nurse, director of services, or consultant -- for thirty-three years, retiring in 1981.
In addition to her degree from Virginia, Pilch earned a BS in Public Health Nursing from The Catholic University, Washington, D.C., in 1952, and a Master's in Nursing, also from The Catholic University, in 1963, majoring there in Public Health Nursing Service Administration. Pilch quickly assumed leadership roles for various D.C. Public Health Department projects and divisions, including development, implementation, coordination, and evaluation of services for physically and mentally challenged children, and for the constellation of specialty adolescent health programs offered at the newly-organized D.C. Children's Hospital Adolescent Clinic. Pilch wrote a number of program and procedure manuals, program evaluations, grant applications, and biographical essays, and gave many papers throughout her career. She published an article for the ANA Clinical Conferences Monograph Series (5: 24-33, 1965) entitled: "A Multidisciplinary Approach to a School-Centered Rehabilitation Program for Pregnant School-Age Girls." She was widely recognized as an excellent teacher.
Extent
1.25 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
(1913–2000) Materials from her career with the Washington, DC Department of Public Health. Issues concerning adolescent health and children with disabilities, both at the general program level and daily operations, including case reports [IRB required for a consultation]. Also two charting notebooks from 1937 and 1939 detail treatment regimes, medication, and remarks for identified patients [IRB also required].
Arrangement
Pilch's curriculum vitae and student materials occupy the collection's initial folders, followed by various items in chronological order to 1965. The Box-02 folders reproduce Pilch's organization of three distinct notebooks containing materials on: 1) the Washington, D.C. Children's Hospital Adolescent Clinic, 1964; 2) D.C. Public Health Department materials on child mental retardation, bulk 1966-67; and 3) D.C. Public Health Department materials on crippled children, 1976. Box 03 contains a chronological arrangement of various items generated by Pilch in the latter part of her career, followed by a publications series. The final three folders of the collection contain the restricted items.
- Author
- Henry K. Sharp
- Date
- 2014
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the The Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry Repository
University of Virginia School of Nursing
P.O. Box 800782
Charlottesville Virginia 22908-0782 United States
mailto:nurs-hxc@virginia.edu