New Britain herald., 1918-06-12
RICH ARE ASKED
 TO RELEASE NURSES
UnpatriotiC to Keep Them Where
 Not Needed

Will you help send 8 nurse to
 France to nurse our w6unded soldiers
 and sai1ors?"
 Of course, replied the woman
 thus addressed by 2 Red Cross Nurse
 campaign c worker, and she reached for
 her check book
 "No-put Up your check book. It s
 not 2 question of money. It's purely
 3 matter of patriotic thoug ghtfulnesa
 and really personal service to our
 troops
 But I do not understand"
 "Bluntly put you are wasting the
 skill of a graduate nurse needed now
 in military hospitals or to care for several civilian patients from the ship building plant on the water front Your little boy no longer needs Miss Blanks rare skill acquired ip hospl- tai and operating room. You now can do everything necessary for him. 1 But because he is fond of Miss Blank and she amuses him so successfully you are keeping her on day after day i to gratify Roberts whim. In nor
 maj times, this possibly would be ! con1mendabie but now when the sur geons general are calling for nurses
 
 country's uniform it borders closely on the unpatriottc,'
 Yes but while Miss Blank amuses
 Robbie am free to carry on my war 1 work" "Relea sing that nurse, whom you cannot replace in army hospital ls,- Is the most direct war service you pos siblv can render to the nation and to your com munity.''
 More than 2nono experienced ! nurses must be in our Army and Navy Nurses Corps before January 1. This is no more debatahle than the proposition that our men In increas- ing number must enter the army. When these nurses are enrolled as enrolled they must be--the serv- ices of every competent nurse rem ain ing in civilian nursing will be in still greater demand. More people wll need her skill at the same time
 If all families refuse to be selfish to the soldiers and to their neighbors, ample nursing service will be avail able for the civilian sick and to pro tect the public health. But this means that no nurse, competent for serious cases, is wasted as con1psn- ion--that no nurse Is retained on a case for a single day after her nurs- ing skill Is not important. It implies also that instead of monopolzing 2 nurse to care for one patient. the public, wherever possible. will employ , hospitals or use visiting nurse serT-
 ices. Through these channels, each
 nurse Is enabled to give skilled atten-
 tion to several patients Or to a number
 Of fs smilies. Tn hospitals. for example the student nurses 'bathe the patients form many routine services. This leaves the highly skilled nurse to carry out important treatments for many patients Only in exceptional l cases, does 3. patient require unremit- ting services of 3, graduate nurse. So to employ her except in critical ca Is to waste much of her skill in at tentions that any intelligent woman can supply The graduate nurse in the hospitals, moreover, is helping to train student nurses and thus to m 1air- tain our future nurse supply. The visiting and public health nurses sim. i1arly perform wholesale life saving or health protective service. It is clear that the fewer nurses monopol- 1 ized for single patients, the more there | will be to carry on military hospita Is l and medical institutions that save life 1 on 3 large scale"