Evening star., 1938-04-03
A Hospital Without Walls
Instructive Visiting Nurse Society 80 Years Old This Month";
Made 167 972 Calls Last Year.
By JESSIE FAINT EVANS.
.WENTIETH CENTURY mission
ers, constituting themselves
Washington's hospital with

CTS,
Washinetons hospital with
L out walls" anywhere in the
District Of Columbia that human need
and suffering calls them. are the
nurses in blue of the Instructive Visit
ing Nurse Society
In the Bibles spirit of II was sick
and We visited me-" these modern
blue birds Of happiness" with their
insignia I. v. N. s. and their black
emergency bags, embody the acme
Of community service to ailing hu-
manity without regard to race, creed
or color.
This month the Instructive Visiting
Nurse Society will be entitled to light
38 candles upon its birthday cake
That is, provided it takes time enough
of from its labor of love and service
to celebrate its extraordinary record
OF progress and achievement.
Thirty-eight years ago on April l3
Miss Emily Tuckerman, aunt of Wal
ter Tuckerman of this city, incor-
porated the Instructive Visiting Nurse
Society. Associated with Miss Tuck
erman in its Incorporation We're Mrs.
Thomas F. Bayard, wife of the then
Secretary of State, later Ambassador
to Great Gritain, and DR.. Anne Will
son, a woman physician of this city.
1t was incorporated as a society whose
business should be TO provide trained
nurses to visit the poor in their homes
and to instruct them in the care OF
the sick"
Mrs. Lodge First President.
Mrs. Henry Cabot Lodge. wife Of
the Senator from Massa chusetts. was
elected the society's first president,
and Miss Tuckerman out of her own
personal funds paid the salary OF
the one trained nurse.
From the beginning, as the carefully
kept records of the society indicate,
its cooperation with DR.. William c.
Woodward. then the health officer OF
the District and Washington's various
medical. dental, church. hospital and
relief agencies was wise and har-
monious. for which it was highly
commended by all. including Maj.
Ny w
ent of police.
Miss Mary Hopkins, the societys
secretary, who was the daughter of
Mrs. Archibald Hopkins, revered for
her contributions to our city's welfare,
makes no mention Of those horse and
buggy days of 1900, but there are
quaint references to the gift of
Columbia bicycle for the use of the
lone nurse and to the fact that she
carried her black emergency bag in
a basket swung between its handles.
There is conscientious discussion. as
we'll, as to whether the societys treas
urer, Mrs. H. B. Beale Of 1921 K
street, should allow for repairs to this
bicycle and the replacement of its
tires in the Society's expense account
after many miles of conscientious ped
aling on the part of this pioneer
nurse.
Staff Grows.
Thlrty-seven years afterWard the
Instructive Visiting Nurse Society of
1887, with staff of II nurses. paid
q total of 1892 visits to aid 256Ol
patients.
Mrs. Harlan Fiske Stone, president
OF the Instructive Visiting Nurse So
ciety, and Miss Gertrude H. Bowling,
executive director of its staff Of
nurses. says that of these calls 10,387
were made to expectant mothers in
their homes and 1886 to the newly
born babies Of these mothers.
Mrs. Stone and Miss Bowling en-
phasize that approximately so per
cent of their work concerns children
beginning with the prenatal care of
the mother and the society's co-opera-
ton with her afterwards as to the
baby's medical supervision. To all
expectant mothers the society stresses
the Importance of early medical care
and the value of the Wasserman test
Surgeon General Thomas Parran of
the Public Health Service, they point
out, estimates that 10000 infants in
the United States are born with
syphilis each year. In giving prenatal
supervision, the visiting nurse teaches
the mother that most of the babies
who die in the first few weeks Of life
do so from preventable causes.
Helps Children Through Life.
All of the society's work is not con-
fined to the babies in the homes and
their mothers. There is the quiet
older child who is helped to wise self
expression or the nervous child sub
3ect to ungovernable tantrums whose
parents are directed to various agen-
cies which can help them with their
problems. 1t also comes to the rescue
OF children with speech and hearing
defects who, after being referred to
adequate medical care and treatment,
THE&eBERNTou