The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-04-06
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10 FIELD OGoHNZS

national defense, and may be had on application
to the committee on nursing, council of national
defense, Washington, D. G.
In the great majority of schools the pupil nurse
is at no expense for tuition, board, room, laundry
or uniform. The regularity and interest of the
life are strengthening physically and mentally.
Salaries after graduation compare favorably with
salaries of other professional women, and unlim-
tied opportunities are waiting for the nurse at the
completion of her course.
1.-THE training offers rich compensations for its
exacting work." said Miss Delano, ''for the capable
trained nurse has gained along with knowledge of
suffering and tragedy, the broad outlook of one
who has learned to think in terms Of humanity;
and the realization that her work is helping to
make the world a happier and a better place"
What it means to be a Red Cross nurse is a
question that is asked repeatedly at all chapter
Headquarters. To be a Red Cross nurse" is to
have met the standards of enrolment of the Red
Cross, and to be subject to such calls of duty
from the Red Cross as are specified in the en-
rollment. Red Cross nurses receive no compen-
sation except when on active duty. When called
on for service with the United States army or
navy nurse corps they receive the pay and main
tenance provided by law for these corps, and are
entitled to the anne war-risk insurance as officers
and enlisted men. All Red Cross nurses assigned
to duty in military or naval hospitals automatically
become members of the Army and Navy Nurse
corps, and after their assignment to duty are no
longer under the supervision or direction of the
Red Cross.
In order to meet the increasing demands of the
Army and Navy Nurse corps, the Red Cross has
modified its former requirements for enrolment.
The age limit has been lowered to twenty-one
years, and in special cases nurses over forty may
be accepted. Smaller schools for nurses have been
placed on the accredited list, and applicants are
judged on their merits.
The American Red Cross has no schools for
nurses, nor does it give or authorize any short
course which qualities one as a trained nurse.
Short courses which 1t does give In Elementary
Hygiene and Home Care of the Sick" and Home
Dietetics" are not equivalent to hospital training.
But satisfactory completion of the first course is
the first step in becoming a Red Cross Volunteer
Nurses Aid, the term which is applied to those
women who, having met definite requirements of
the Red Cross, are available for such service as
they have voluntarily pledged themselves to give.
If 1t becomes necessary to rely on the assistance
of volunteers to aid In the care of sick aud wound.
ed soldiers and sailors, they will be selected from
among those who have had this instruction. The
women so selected will be given an opportunity for
practical experience of one month of eight hours
daily In approved hospitals. No guarantee of Sc
lection for service is given by the Red Cross, but
1t urges upon the women of the country the prac
teal value Of these courses to home and com
munity.
Every day, at the headquarters of the Red
Cross In washington, nurses are being modified
for duty at home or abroad" said Miss Deano
"a call may come in the morning for a group OF
nurses for service with the British expeditionary
forces, In the afternoon for another group spe
cially skilled in contagious work for a c%antonment
hospital at home, or for public health nurses need
ed in the sanitary zones surrounding the canton
ments. Sometimes they go in units of a hundred
or more, sometimes in smaller companies ant
sometimes alone; prepared for any hardship, oil
any service, with the bronze letters u. S. on thu
collars of those serving under the government II
the Army and Navy Nurse corps, the Red Cross in
sigma marking the uniform of those serving di
rectly under the Red Cross-smal emblems n
high service"