The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-02-24

! Washington, D. c., Feb. 23.-That
i the army school of nursing Will
soon be made an integral part of
| the army organization is the hope
! OF Major Julia Stinson, superin-
tendent of the army nurse corps.
! The nurse corps believes in pre-
paredness for service-in peace or
an emergency. And preparedness,
from the point of view of the corps
means training school for nurses,
corresponding in a general way
with the training school for off,
GERS at West Point.
We have such school, but it ex-
I lists only by an order of the sec
i rotary of war. This may be a per-
manent enough existence, but it has
an indefinite sound. Congress is to
! be asked, therefore, to give this
/ important school a military status,
| so that it may be a part of the
army and SO that the student nurs-
eS may have the relative rank of
, cadets instead of the status of civ
ilian employees of the medical de-
partment of the army.
Until the recent war the army
maintained a small standing corps
I vi hui Al IAlAC Va RS<1NC anu MN
| it needed large numbers, recruited
them from the Red Cross Nursing
service. But during the World war
/ the army opened it's own training
school to fit women for service, AMI
it proved a successful venture. The
first class of 500 young women was
! graduated last June. They serV-
i ed during their training at Walter
Reed and Letterman General hos
pitfalls, and other army hospitals in
this country, and in that way rem
| dered valuable service.
| The school of nursing cannot use
all of its graduates in ordinary
| times, but those who are not need
ed go out well trained to give ser
vice in civilian fields. Some of the
army nurse graduates have gone
into the newest line of nursing, pub
lie health work. Others have gone
into private hospitals, homes, in
situations, and factories. There Is
need for every one of them, for
there are never enough nurses grad
uated from first class schools, it
seems. 1t is because of this great
need for we'll trained nurses and
because it is an economy to the gov
eminent 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 stu
dents, but to make it easier for
western girls to take the course,
training is also given in San Fran
cisco at the Lette-man General hos
pital
1t is interesting to visit the
school at Walter Reed. You go with
the 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
demonstration rooms fitted out like
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 at
mosphere in the school Hospital
and transportation facilities for
wartime nursing have been develop
ed so highly during the late war
ludI tue al III Iu4 DC SGAA NOuLAS OAI
having practically the same appar-
atus as the nurse in any civilian
hospital.
Nor is the army nurse taught
only the technique needed in treat
ing battle cases. She goes through
the same course of training that
the civilian nurse does. From diet
in communicable diseases to public
sanitation, the various kinds of
therapy, hospital architecture, oral
hygiene, and industrial and school
nursing run the subjects with
which she is expected to be famll
lar when she is graduated. Know
edge of all these subjects may not
be required in line of duty in the
army, but the school fits its stu
dents for service anywhere.
One of the instructors points out !
with patriotic pride that the army |
school is one of the few schools Of !
nursing il the country that is able |
to cover the entire course recon- |
mended by the League of Nursing |
Education.
THE army can do this" said the !
nurse instructor, because the stu