In 1901, on receiving her diploma, de Bourgoing joined the Société de Secours aux Blessés Militaires (SSBM), forerunner of the French Red Cross, as a volunteer and began working at the Beaujon Hospital in Paris. As a result of her competence and the understanding she showed both patients and doctors, she was appointed president of the SSBM. In 1907, she sailed for Morocco with the French expeditionary force under General Antoine Marius Benoît Drude. As head of a team of SSBM volunteers, she established an infirmary in Casablanca, treating the wounded in the conflicts between the French and Moroccans. As conditions were difficult in Morocco, it was decided the wounded and seriously ill should be transported to Oran in Algeria where it would be easier to provide proper treatment. It was in October 1907 while she and two of her nurses were accompanying the wounded on a French naval crossing to Oran, that she first met General Hubert Lyautey, who was division commander there. After spending fifteen months in North Africa, she returned to France, only to leave shortly afterwards for the Italian port Messina in December where she and her nursing team helped care for the 80,000 victims of the 1908 earthquake. As a result of their exemplary services, they were decorated by Princess Hélène of Orléans.