The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-03-01
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC }. HAsKN. Director.
WashingtOn. D. Q.
MILITARY STATUS FOR ARMY

St1mSon, superintendent OF the army
) nurse corps.
I The nurse corps believes in pre-
J paredness for service-in peace or an
! emergency. And preparedness, from
tho point of view of the corps means
a training school for nurses, CORE
I spending in a 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 a permanent enough
existence. but il has an indefinite
| sound Congress is to be asked, there
fore, to give this important school a
military status so that 1t may be a
part of the army and so that the stu
! dent nurses may have the relative
/ rank of cadets instead of the status
of civilian employees of the medical
department of the army.
Until the recent war the army main
tainedsa small standing corps of nurses
, in time of peace and when it needed
; large numbers, recruited them from
! the Red Cross Nursing Service But
during the world war the army opened
its own training school to fit women
| for service. and it proved a successful
venture The first class of 500 young
women was graduated last June
They served during theif training at
Walter Reed and Letterman general
: hospitals, ana army IOSp4lc1lo III
! this country. 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 grad
yates have gone into the newest line
of nursing, public health work Others
have gone into private hospitals
! homes. institutions, and factories
There is need for every one of them.
for there are never enough nurses
graduated from first class schools, 1t
seems. 1t is because of this great
need for well trained nurses and be-
cause it is an economy to the gov
] eminent to get its nursing done partly
/ by students-as most hospitals do
! that the army school of nursing ex-
poets 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 1etterman
General Hospital.
Tt is interesting to visit the school
vague idea, perhaps, that first aid is
the prominent subject in an army
nurses course. You would not be
surprised TO find one of the demon
TOOIIlS llllGQ Out IKE d camp
with dummies dressed in khaki to be
used as models for dressing 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 army nurse can
count on having practically the same
apparatus. as the nurse in any civilian
I
Nor is the army nurse taught only
the technique needed in treating battle
cases She goes thru 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
familiar when she is graduated.
Knowledge of all these subjects may
not be required in line of duty in the
army, bus the school fits its students
i 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
The army can do this said the
nurse instructor, because the stu
dents 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 small faculty of doctors
to give private lectures on all sorts of
medical subjects, the army school can
have 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 Is of these
instructors giving lectures to one class
in the school"
Besides the unusual opportunity of
studying with so many specialists, the
tunity to visit and study in other hos
pitfalls There is no provision for
teaching public health nursing at
Walter Reed, nor for mental nursing
cases For these subjects, the army
affiliates with hospitals specializing
IN such cases. Students spend at least
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, PennsyI-
vania, and to St Elizabeths, the gov
ernment hospital for the insane, in
Washington, d. c.
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 hospitals are open to
the student nurses. At Walter Reed
school last year a nature enthusiast
took the girls on outdoor trips in the1
spring and summer months Then
there are basketball. swimming, and
tennis, and gymnasium classes under
an army specialist in physical culture.
Major Stimson is enthusiastic about
the army school
I'VE have never had any word of
our. graduates falling to pass a state
registration examination, she says.