The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-07-20
$4,000 NURSES
ASKED TO ENROLL
FOR WAR SERVICE
Red Cross Undertakes Task OF
Recruiting Number Needed
by Army and Navy.
Women Urged to Enter Training
Schools and Public Generally
Asked to Help.

Nurses! Nursesl Nursesl This
cry is being sounded everywhere by
the American Red Cross, which has
undertaken the task of enrolling more
than 25, 900 nurses for Army and Navy
service before January 1, 1919.
Nurses, first of all. for overseas,
cantonment and naval hospital serv-
Ice, and after that, nurses for every
other service-for civilian hospitals,
for public health stations. And last.
but moi least, the embryo nurses
young girls for training schools in
either military or civilian hospitals.
To prevent any serious shortage OF
skilled nurses to care for civilian sick
in American cities, every married
nurse, or nurse not now engaged in
active nursing and not eligible for
army service, is urged to enroll with
the American Red Cross as a Home
Defense Nurse, for assignment a few
hours daily or weekly to nursing
neighbors in emergencies and nursing
in hospitals and dispensaries, baby
saving stations and similar activities.
Others will be needed to assist In
carrying on the work of district visit
ing or public school nursing. These
additional nurses will render local
service and at the same time will re-
lieve from civilian duty many others
who are needed Sorely In military and
naval establishments. The nurses, in
addition, are asked to enroll for emer-
gency service in local disasters which
call suddenly for a large number of
nurses.
Nursing Conservation.
If all civilians who need skilled nurs-
ing are to have care, it is important,
the American Red Cross points out,
that as few nurses a. possible be en-
ployed for all their time to care for a
single patient. The public, therefore,
is urged to employ an individual
trained nurse only in case of real ne
cessity and to utilize visiting nurses
for hospitals wherever accessible.
These measures, together with the
past time service of married nurses,
1t is believed, will go far toward pro-
viding adequate nursing service for
the civilian population in the United
States.
If nurses and the public generally
are willing to make such adjustments
as may be necessary the American
Red Cross believes it will be able to
recruit sufficient nurses for military
duty without ~endangering the health
of communities or disturbing the sup
ply of nurses for the future. The
American Red Cross recognizes that 1t
Is imperative to maintain the teaching
and the executive staffs of schools for
nurses that there may be no Interrupt
ton in the supply of graduate nurses
and that economical nursing may be
available for the civilian sick. 1t real
ICES ,.lso the necessity of safeguarding
to the utmost the health of the COM
munity through the service of the pub
lie health nurses.
The American Red Cross, neverthe-
less, is urging the enrolment of all
nurses with the understanding that
those vitality needed to maintain local
nursing activities shall be allowed with
the consent of the military authorities
to continue their present positions as
a patriotic service.
How to Enroll.
Nurses who wish to enlist should
apply, or mail applications, to their To-
cal Red Cross Chapter or direct to the
Bureau of Nursing Service, Atlantic
Division, American Red Cross, "A East
T~wenty-third street, New York city.
The body of enrolled Red Cross nurses
constitutes the reserve for the Army
and Navy Nurse Corps.
They must not be over forty-five nor
less than twenty-one years of age.
The success Of American arms or
land and sea depends in a large meas
ure upon an adequate enrolment Of
nurses for the Army and Navy, ac-
cording to Surgeons General Gorgas
and BREASTED.
mo more urgent need exists today
and no factor can be more important
in the winning of this war than ade-
quate care of our sick and wounded"
said Surgeon General Gorgas.
"Nurses who respond will have the
they are lessening the sufferi1gs of the
men of their own country those bound
by ties of blood, friendship and ma
tional brotherhood.
Nurses of America, your country
Calls you'll"