Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-05-18
THE RED CROSS
NURSE
BY MISS JANE A. DELAN0
Director Department of Nursing,
American Red Cross

/ Red Cross nurses nave gone lulo
military service as members of the
| 4. & \. nurse corps over eight hun
bred strong; over two thousand are
in France taking care of our own
wounded, or at the request of Great
Britain serving with the British ex-
peditionary forces. They have gone
into Italy and Greece and are on
| their way to Palestine. and they are
somewhere near Salonika. And yet,
Tive thousand more graduate
nurses before the first of June" is
the campaign call of the Red Cross
nursing service: and this is cou-
pied with "25,000 by the first OF
! January"
The surgeou-general Of the army
| has asked the Red Cross to supply
this number before these dates.
The United States army and navy
| nurse corps, and the Red Cross
| nursing service are all calling to
| the graduate nurse to enter military
| service.
/ That there may be enough nurses
| for the army we are mobilizing the
nursing profession as well as these
various departments of the govern
ment is pressing every individual
| qualified nurse to make an immed1-
ate decision as to her willingness
| to serve with the army and navy.
| Every day in the headquarters of
| the American Red Cross in Wash
| ington groups of trained nurses are
| being modified for military service
| for the environments at home or the
war hospitals abroad. They are
called like soldiers and respond like
| soldiers The country is leaning
upon them as heavily as on its fight
ers. For the United States is now
fully awake to the realization that
an adequate nursing force is just
as essential to victory as adequate
| infantry or artillery or fleet.
SO keen, indeed, is this realiza-
ton that every man and woman is
| involved. The government is call
ing on the general public to do its
/ share-to make the sacrifices, I'LL
in the gaps. and promote all public
and home health measures, to re-.
| lease the trained nurse for war
duty. Those who engage private
l uuLN nurses al . VI oCO " SoAHO 1AA~
preference to those nurses awaiting
orders of mobilization that. the fl
nanciaI burden may not be made
too great. Practically every train
ing school for nurses in the United
/ States is expanding accommoda-
tons to take in greatly increased
number of student nurses to help
meet the unparalleled situation.
Adjustment is going on all along
the line.
Also the Red Cross has modified
its former requirements for enroll
ment. The age limit has been low
cred to 81 years, and in special
cases nurses over forty are accept
ed. Smaller schools for nurses
have been put on the accredited
list, and applicants are judged on
their merits On the average more
than one thousand nurses month
are enrolling with the Red Cross
nursing service, and its total enroll
Iment. which is the largest Of any
nursing organization in the world,
exceeds 10000.
What it means to be a Red Cross
nurse is a question that thousands,
even hundreds of thousands of
women, are asking. The answer is
that to be a Red Cross nurse is to
have met the standards of enroll
ment, and TO be subject to such
calls of duty from the Red Cross as
are specified in the enrolment.
The Red Cross nursing service is
the reserve of the United States
| army and navy nurse corps, and
supplies nurses as needed to the
United States public health service.
When Red Cross nurses are called
on for service with the army and
navy nurse corps, they receive the
pay and maintenance provided by
law for these corps. and are en-
titled to the same war risk insur-
ance as officers and enlisted men.
All nurses assigned to duty in mill
itary and naval hospitals autOmat-
iCally become members of the army
and navy nurse corps, and after
their assignment to duty are no
longer under the supervision and
direction of the Red Cross. These
nurses wear on the collars of their
uniforms the bronze letters "U. S"
indicating service under the gov
eminent Those serving directly
under the Red Cross wear the Red
Cross insignia.
Miss Alice Fitzgerald, r. N, the
Edith Cavell memorial nurse from
Massachusetts after 10 months of
work in military hospitals in
France, wrote to her sister nurses
in the United States:
The wounds which you will be
called upon to handle and dress are
such as you have never imagined it
possible for a human being to be
victim of and yet live. If the man
is seriously crippled or disfigured,
it viii be well to try not to think
too much of his wife, or his chill
dren, of his parents, who are anx-
iously waiting for news of him
| 'oEer there If the wounded man
is going to die, shall you be able to
keep out of your mind the waiting
mother or the wife to whom the
postman's knock will mean the
bearing Of the sad news? And
| when these thoughts are with you
most of your waking hours, and
many of your sleeping ones, you
begin to wonder how ii will be pos
sible to face another day of il.
Fortunately, however, there is
| another side of the work which
makes it possible to face each day.
| There is the man who is getting
better and who is happy in the near
prospect of getting home; there is
the man whom you did not expect
- L. /.