Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-02-24

| organization is the hope of Major Julia
Stimson, superintendent OF the army
| nurse corps.
| The nurse corps believes in prepar-
edness for service-in peace or an
| emergency. And preparedness, from
the point of view Of the corps means
! training school for nurses, CORR
| spending in general way with the
! training school for officers at West
Point.
We have such a school, but it exists
only by an order of the secretary OF
war. This may be permanent enough
! existence, but it has an indefinitesound.
| Congress is to be asked, therefore, to
give this important school a military
| status SO that it may be part Of the
army and SO that the student nurses
! may have the relative rank Of cadets
| instead Of the status of civilian en-
ployes of the medical department. OF
! the army.
| Until the recent war the army main
| tanned a small standing corps of nurses
/ in time of peace and when it needed
J large numbers, recruited them from
J the Red Cross nursing service. But
| during the world war the army opened
| it's own training school to fit women
! for service, and it proved successful
venture. The first class Of 500 young
women was graduated last June. They
served during their training at Walter
Reed and Letterman general hospitals,
| and other army hospitals in this coun-
| try, and in that way rendered valuable
| service.
/ The school of nursing cannot use all
Of it's graduates in ordinary times, but
| those who are not needed go out well
| trained to give service in civilian fields.
Some of the army nurse graduates have
gone into the newest line OF nursing,
public health work. Others have gone
into private hospitals, homes, institu-
tons, and factories. There is need for
every one of them, for there are never
enough nurses graduated from first
class schools, it seems. 1t ls because
of this great need for well trained
| nurses and because it is an economy
TO the government to get its nursing
done partly by students-as most hos
pitfalls do that the army school of
nursing expects to continue.
Schools in East and West
The school is really two schools.
Walter Reed hospital in this city takes
the greater part of the students, but to
make it easier for western girls to
take the course, training is also given
in San Francisco at the Letterman
general hospital.
1t is interesting to visit the school
at Walter Reed. You go with the vague
idea. that first aid is the prominent
subject in an army nurses course. You
would not be surprised to find one of
the demonstration rooms fitted out
like camp with dummies dressed in
khaki to be used as models fer dress
inp imaginary wounds.
You find, however, that there is very
little Of the emergency atmosphere in
the school Hospital and transporta-
ton facilities for wartime nursing have
been developed so highly during the
late war that the array nurse can count
on having practically the same appa-
ratus as the nurse in any civilian hos
| pital.
Nor is the army nurse taught only
the technique needed in treating battle
cases. She goes through the same
course Of training that the civilian
nurse does. From diet in communicable
diseases to public sanitation, the vari-
Gus kinds Of therapy, hospital archi-
lecture. oral hygiene. and industrial
and school nursing run the subjects
| with which she is expected to be fami-
| liar when she is graduated. knowledge
of all these subjects may not be re-
auired in line of duty in the army, but
the school fits its students for service
anywhere
One Of the instructors points out
| with patriotic pride that the army
school is one of the few schools of
nursing in the country that is able to
cover the entire course recommended
BY the League Of Nursing Education.
1.-THE army can do this said the
nurse instructor. because the students
are on ward duty less than in most
| hospitals. And then, too, there are
so many instructors from the Army
Medical School who can be called on
to lecture for us. ...
Corps Of Army instructors
Where the private hospital must
depend on a small faculty of doctors
to give private lectures on all sorts of
medical subjects. the army school can
have a specialist in every subject from
among the army doctors stationed at
Walter Reed or at the medical school.
These doctors who lecture for us do
SO by army orders. 1t is part of their
regular work We have % Of these
instructors giving lectures to one class
in the school
Besides the unusual opportunity Of
STUDYING with so many specialists, the
JTmy HuESP sLlIcuC lihS az w p"i
to visit and study in other hospitals.
There is no provision for teaching. pub
lie health nursing at Walter Reed, nor
for mental nursing, nor care of children
nor maternity cases. For these sub
iects. the army affiliates with hospitals
| specializing in such cases. Students
spend at least a third of their three
years in these other hospitals. For
public health nursing they have been
going to the famous Henry Street
Settlement in New York. and for other
subjects to New York, Massachusetts,
PENNSYLVANIA, and to st. Elizabeth's,
the government hospital for the insane,
in Washington, D. G..
One Of the attractive features of the
army nurse schools is the opportunity
for physical and cultural development.
The recreational lectures and the
classes in basketry and other voca
tional subjects that are held for the
soldiers at the hospital are open to the
student nurses. AT Walter Reed school
last wear a nature enthusiast took the
summer months. Then there arc
girls on outdoor trips in the spring and
basketball, swimming. and tennis, and
gymnasium classes under an army spe-
cialist in physical culture.
Major Stimson is enthusiastic about
the army school.
1--WE have never had any word of
one Of our graduates failing to pass
state registration examination she
says. And at the last two examina-