The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-04-19

Continued from Preceding Page)
cludes all enrolled Red Cross nurses.
including the members of the Town
and Country Nursing Service, en-
rolled dietists, and women volunteers
selected for service in military and
convalescent hospitals or assigned by
the Red Cross to assist in the care of
the sick.
Miss Delano is commander-in-ehief
of the service. The work of her COM
n1ittee embraces the adoption OF
standards for enrolment. the ap-
pointment of the subordinate COM
mittees, and the direct control of en-
rollment and other general matters
pertaining to the service.
When organized for war the nurses
are grouped in base hospital units.
navy detachments, and emergency de-
tachments; of these the personnel
consists of so active and Is reserve
nurses and 25 active and % reserve
nurses aids for the base hospital
units, proportionately smaller num-
bers of nurses for the navy detaeh-
ments, with the emergency groups
consisting of small reserves easily
mobilized and available either for
Army or Navy hospitals.
While the traditional picture of a
Red Cross nurse places her with a
fighting army, yet to the people OF
of the United States she is better
known for her relief work in time of
disaster. Professional Red Cross
nurses reached the Eastland disaster
in Chicago in time to resuscitate
some of the half-drowned victims.
This fire department promptness
also occurred at the time of the dis
astrous floods in Dayton and south
ern Ohio. Red Cross nurses were
first to give relief to many isolated
communities in this region as well as
| to the larger cities. In one case, two
nurses in an outlying town not only
cared for the population of that town
! but they instructed every family in
the care they must take to avoid pes
thence after the flood should recede.
That no serious epidemics occurred
in the valley of the Ohio after this
disaster lis undoubtedly due in part
! to the hygienic instruction given by
| the Red Cross nurses.
The professional nurse enrolled in
the Red Cross can find opportunities
for public service other than those
arising in the emergencies of war or
| disaster. The general public health
and educational campaigns of the
Red Cross are largely carried on by
the enrolled nurses employed contin-
uously in this work of peace.
i A force Of nearly 200 enrolled
nurses is now employed in the teach
| ing staff giving the Red Cross
courses for women. There are three
of these courses: Elementary Hy-
I giene and Home Care of the Sick,
Home Dietetics, and the Preparation
of Surgical Dressings. Nurses also
act as directors of the various teach
ing centres, which have already been
established in New York, Philadel-
phia, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland,
Los Angeles, and elsewhere.
Finally, the professional nurse can
find opportunity for public service
under the Red Cross in the modern
and admirable Town and Country
Nursing Service. In effect this ser
vice is the extension of the visiting
nurse system of the city to the rural
districts. The Red Cross nurse thus
has become battler against the re-
duction of national vitality.
This work, undertaken by a chap
ter or in cooperation with affiliated
organizations, has few if any rivals
In Importance among the various
Red Cross activities in peace time
Today IS nurses are engaged in pub.
lie health work in % states, and the
work is expanding rapidly with great
possibilities for future DEVELOPMENT
Many nurses are now specially pre-.
pairing themselves to enter this serv.
ice. It is sufficient here to sa.
that the rural visiting nurse wear
ing the Red Cross is carrying
the message of sanitation, hygiene
and better health into remote region!
where it was never heard before.
These in sum are the principa
fields of opportunity for the profes
sional nurse in the Red Cross.
The Nursing Service has at pres
ent over 1000 nurses meeting tn,
Red Cross standard. But thes'
nurses require certain amount O
assistance which can be furnished b,
the relatively unframed.
The most numerous class Of tf1es
J assistants are the nurses aids, VIII
. are now being selected. In ever,
war hospital there will be a larg
amount of work to which the profes
sional nurses cannot find time to at
tend. Such work as the preparation
of food in the diet kitchens and foo
for the hospital staff, the genera
homework of the ospita1-cleanin
and bed-making, the supply room
and the linen rooms-there must b
supervision of all this work, and thi
supervision in large part will
II given over to the nurses aids.
II The aids are being selected fror
| those possessing certificates in tn
Red Cross courses; in "Elementar
| Hygiene and Home Care of tn
Sick" and Home Dietetics," an
| also in the course in the preparatio
of surgical dressings. Since it
| only through these courses that la
| woman may assist in military no:
| pital,. something about their organ
II Of ov11