Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-12-14
From Saturdays Daily.

From Saturdays Daily.
The Hospital Training School Com
mencement exercises, were held at the
Elks Club last evening.
The following program was render
ed:
Violin Duet Mrs. Edgar Kellogg
and Clarence f. jackson.
Invocation-Rev. C. c. Decker.
Solo-Marion Atwood.
Address-The Profession of Nurs-
ing, by Miss Haswell, secretary Of
Wisconsin State Board of Medical Elk
aminers
Violin Solo-Clarence f. Jackson.
Presentation of Diploma George
w. Mead, President of Riverview Hos
pital
Observation-Disclosures J. Rochstroch
Miss Anna Guenther the graduate
was gowned in the Nurses uniform
as was all of the nurses fsom the Riv-
erview Hospital The Elks Lodge
room had been effectively decorated in
chrysanthemums and palms for the oc-
casion.
Following is the address given by
Miss Haswell:
The Profession of Nursing.
Nursing has grown to be one of the
great vacations for women. It meets
a human need which should vitality
touch every section Of your country.
The history of nursing is of intense
interest. To heal the sick and to bind
up the wounds of the afflicted has been
the work of humanity since the world
began, and the parable of the Good
Samaritan emphasized for all time,
our duty, but it remained to the nine
teenth century to form any definite
plans for the education Of nurses.
When the war between England
France and Turkey on the one side,
and on the other Russia, was being
fought in Crimea in 1854, and the
sick and wounded were lying uncared
for in prisons and on the battlefield,
one who would yearned to serve where
the need was greatest, left her home
in England, where she might have
known a life of ease, and organized
corps of volunteer women, some
ninety in number, most of them hav-
ing had no experience in caring for
the sick, to go to the battlefront. She
organized hospital in Scutari on the
banks of the Danube, and in one day
six hundred soldiers were brought in
to the hospital for care, and in three
weeks the number increased to three
thousand. In the face Of great dis
enlargement and almost unsurmount-
able obstacles, the hospital was, I'M
der the direction Of Florence Nighting
gale. made a place where the soldiers
received hitherto unknown attention
and care.
When Florence Nightingale return
ed to England, she refused all person
al honor, but Immediately made plans
for a school for nurses, and the PEG
pie raised a fund of 50,00O9 to found
such a school and hospital in the city
of London. Florence Nightingale was
proficient in the classics, mathematics
music and the modern languages. She
was naturally endowed with love fol
people and love for service, and was
gifted in leadership, but her health
was impaired and she was unable tC
carry to completion her plans. But
down through the years has come the
inspiration of her life and of her i
deals.
During our own Civil War it was
she whose counsel was sought for the
best means by which to care for om
wounded, and it was her influence
which largely made possible the trea
ty of Geneva in 1862, which is the
foundation of International Red eros:
Service.
It was about 1880 that the frs
schools in our own country were or
ganized, but naturally they were frs
established in the largest hospitals
notably Bellevue Hospital Of New
York, and Cook County Hospital o
Chicago, the work in both of these in
situations being to care for the sicl
within their borders. John Hopkin
of Baltimore soon followed with it
school and those in charge of tn