Nurse in Iraq needs scrubs

SALEM ? Doctors and nurses at North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) are joining a statewide effort to supply a combat nurse on the battlefields of Iraq with much-needed surgical scrubs.The plea went out from the Mideast earlier this week via email to Christine Gryglik, a surgical nurse at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, who passed it along to her colleagues.According to Gryglik, the Air Force sergeant’s unit is in desperate need of new or gently used scrubs. Due to the number of wounded soldiers and civilians, many of the nurses are using three sets of scrubs each day, she said.Once collected, the so-called “freedom scrubs” will be handed over to the Massachusetts Organization of Nurse Executives (NONE), which is holding a meeting Friday in Natick. NONE representatives will ship the scrubs to Iraq, according to Executive Director Sharon Gale. The NONE bulletin containing the scrubs request was sent to every hospital in Massachusetts.”We’re a nursing organization. When one of our own needs something, we respond,” said Gale. “Right now we’ve got scrubs enough to fill two SUVs and there are more coming in.”At NSMC, scrubs are being collected at the front desk of Salem Hospital’s main entrance, 81 Highland Ave., Salem.