The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-03-23
VISITING NURSES WORK
MISS HILLS DOING THE WORK
HERE.
Made 297 Calls in February-PIan of
Her Days Work-Mects With Power
ty and IIIness-BattIe Against the
Latter-Great Need of Money.

Latter-tsreat Need OF money
Readers of the Journal and Courier
have been told something of the work
which has been begun in New Haven't
under the auspices of the visiting
Nurse association. Last spring a
group of women who came much in
contact with the poor of the city We're
impressed with the great need there rs
for the services of a nurse in homes
where there is little money and often
less nowledge of how to deal with sick
ness. They started upon the work of
raising an endowment, part of which
has been now secured, and of getting
annual subscriptions to help pay the
salary of a nurse until the full endoW-
ment is raised. In January, after a
careful search for some one who should
possess the combination of qualities
necessary for this work, they We're for
tunate enough to secure a nurse who
had had experience and marked sue
cess in Middletown. This city, BY the
way, tenth the size of New Haven
supports two. +--.-.s :,..- .@ss "a
a. Miss Hills began her work among us
the middle of January. If there We're
any who doubted whether there was a
field for such work, their doubts We're
settled in a short space of time. Sta
tistics make dry reading, but the
statement that the total number of
calls made in February was 29S tells
its own story. The majority of these.
We're, Of course, upon families where
there was Illness, though a large NUM-
Der We're in the same line of work, but
Of different kind, such as going for
promised food, getting needed medicine
from drug stores, etc. The statement
is bare and cold, but those who have
heard Miss Hills reports know what is
concealed beneath those figures. Tt
means the comfort of bathing and
fresh linen where there has been no
one who knew how to do such things.
1t means wounds and sores dressed
skilfully and thereby relief brought to-
the sufferers; it means proper food Civ
EN-, oftentimes provided, when the mis-
taken kindness of friends was. giving
that unsuited to the patient. 4 1t means
children fed when search failed 10 re-
veal food in the house; it means that
those who are caring for the patient.
are shown that fresh air, instead of be-.
ing q deadly foe, Is a great help to-
those who win let it in.
In ways such as these Miss Hills Isl
making Illness, always sad even with
all the help that money can give, but
tragical in the homes of the poor, a lit
tie easier to bear; she Is helping to
save the lives Of some and making full
recovery sure for others. And iii cases
where death must come she is making
the end a little less hard. And this is
not all, One of the things which she
does is to give to the families iii which
she visits Instructions as to how To
care for those who are sick, and also
simple rules for preserving health and
avoiding infection. She plans to take
about with her literature used In the
campaign against tuberculosis and TO
explain to the families where she visits
how they may lessen the chances Of
their contracting that scourge Of the
tenement houses. In such ways as
these she is working with those who
are trying to make our city more
healthful place.
Miss Hills work, six days in the
week, is something as follows: Her
first visit is at the Organized Charities
building, where she has been given the
use of the telephone and where she, re-
ceives calls from physicians. She goes
only to cases where she is sent BY the
attending physician and for obvious
reasons, to one where the illness Is con-
tagious. The managers of the Nurse
association have a closet In the rooms
Of the United Workers, which il sup
piled with the things most needed in
caring for the sick--bed- linen, towels
and night-dresses, which are loaned to
the patients, baby clothes, old linen
and cotton, and such simple necessities
as hot water bottles. She fills her
satehel with such of these things as
she needs, and with matted milk. beef
extract, etc, and starts out. Her day,
is supposed to be eight hours long, but
her calls have been so many and SO ur-
gent that she has not kept within her
limit. 1t is not expected that she will
stay in any one place more than forty
minutes, and of course many of her
calls are much shorter than that. Her
visits are in all parts of the city and
among people of all nationalities and
all religions. In the middle of the day
she goes again to the Charities build
ing to see what fresh calls have come,
and the afternoon work is a repetition
of that of the morning. do not know
that I can better describe that work
than by quoting few words from a re-
cent, periodical:
1.-THE visiting nurse meets not only
sickness, but grim poverty. Life takes
on different aspect to her. Her eyes
are being opened to the need of the
| world. There is very little poetry in
the business 1t is work of the hardest
kind, done without any flourish of
trulnpets under circumstances the most
difficult. 1t may not be very exciting
or romantic or poetic, but it is much
| more than that--it is vital, it is God
like. 1t is one means by which an in
stitution or an organization that wants
to do good, can do vast amount of If
most unassuming way.
The great need Of the association is
money to enable them to make this
work of relieving suffering and pre-
venting disease a permanent one. The
managers are also very glad to receive
gifts OFF old line or cotton, which may