Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1920-01-03
COURSE IS
OFFERED W0MENHER[
st. Alphonsus Hospital Train.
ing School for Nurses An
nounces Course win Be Ed
tablished if Desire Shown.

The unusual attention which liz now
being given to public health or visiting
nurse work has prompted Sister NJ.
Sylvina, superior of St. Alphonsus'
hospital, Boise. to announce that IL
there be sufficient number Of women
In Boise and vicinity interested in such
a course, she will establish one In con-
nection with the work Of st. Alphon-
sus training school for nurses
Sister Sylvina arrived In Boise in
August, 1913, at which time she be-
came superior of the hospital, Sister
M. Fintan. for many years in charge
of the hospital, being transferred for
service at st. Joseph's hospital, South
Bend, Ind. Prior to coming to Boise,
Sister Sylvina was assigned for duty
at Holy Cross hospital, Salt Lake. one
OF the largest hospitals in the inter-
mountain region. In her earlier serv-
ice at Salt Lake, she had charge of the
surgery and later was superintendent
of the training school for nurses Pos
sessed of technical training and exec
utive ability which fit her for work
which has been her life work. she has
many plans for the improvement of st.
Alphonsus as home for the sick and
injured.
HS attcIltiOH WHICH lOudy Is Dtl1S
given to public health nursing, which
contemplates caring for the sick in
their own homes, has caused investi-
gators in the history of nursing to
carry their research work back for
many centuries. Evidences of Cath
Ole work along this line are found ms
early at the fifth century. Miss Mary
Sewall Gardner. formerly president OF
the National Organization for Public
Health Nursing. which Is conducting
a campaign for the enlistment of mod
ern young women in this profession
says:
for centuries the monasteries and
| converts stood for all that was best in
nursing, and we of a later generation
who have lived to see the rise of q
great secular profession. should not
forget that 1t would have Jared i'll in
deed with nursing II it had not beer
for the monks and nuns of the middle
ages. Without the protection Of the
strong arm of the Catholic church. in
| dividual effort would probably have
persisted in those stormy days. ever
| IL such effort could have found express
sion in other ways or received its in
spiration from other sources
| Historians of nursing are authorit!
for the statement that most beloved o.
nurses was Elizabeth of Hungary
known in the Catholic church as st
Elizabeth, who left her castle fire.
quently and did systematic work il
ministering to the sick and caring 70
| the poor. Writers say that she was ;
| public health nurse in the trues
| sense, ministering especially to new
born babies and their mothers.
| Miss Gardner adds: I'm all the pas
| there is perhaps no more prominen
figure in the history Of public healtl
nursing than st: Vincent de Paul. WIFI
in the middle of the seventeenth cen
fury founded the world famous orde
known as the Sisters of Charity. He 1
quoted as saying that while nuns mus
need have cloister, the Sisters @
Charity must go everywhere. having m
other monastery than the house of tn
sick and no other chapel than the par
ish church"
The city of Chicago now has tw
communities of Catholic nursing sis
ters who nurse the sick in their owl
homes Other cities also have sue
4 Catholic organizations working for tn
sick in their own homes. Some Q
these orders of sisters aim to care 10
only the most poverty stricken anon
{ the sick and injured.