Evening star., 1943-05-23
|GIoboI Role of Navy Nurses
Cited by Capt. Sue S. Dauser
Group Will Finish
Special Course
At GNU Tuesday
By Jesse FAINT EVANS.

during the last World War, and OF
service in this one. The four gold
braid stripes denote her rank. She is
Capt. Sue S. Dauser, now in her
year as superintendent of United
States Navy Nurses.
The only picture in her Office In
Building "a of the Navy Office OF
Medicine and Surgery, located in the
old Navy Hospital quarters, is OF
Florence Nightingale. Lamp in
hand, the famous nurse is shown
keeping her lonely vigil with the
wounded and dying of the Crimean
war, where she reduced the mortality
in field hospitals from AZ to 2 per
cent.
Navy nurses" Capt. Dauser said
"are performing similar deeds OF
heroism in performance of routine
duty around the world today. Those
on Guam have been evacuated. Some
are still prisoners in the Philippines
Others are serving wherever they are
needed.
THE range is from Alaska to New
Zealand, and from Newfoundland to
Trinidad. They are pioneering, too
in inland hospitals for our conva-
lescent wounded. 1t. 6. g. Grace
Lally IN. c. U. S. N, one of the
heroines of the South Pacific, is now
head nurse at the Naval Hospital at
Bethesda, Md"
Serve at Base Hospitals.
Navy nurses serve at all Navy base
hospitals, on hospital and transport
ships, but not on combat ships, she
said. On combat ships, they are re-
placed by the Navy hospital corps
men, in whose careful training they
have had fundamental part. In
fact, instruction of these hospital
corpsmen is one of the most impor-
tant duties of the Navy nurses.
Navy hospital corpsmen are en-
listed sailors who have volunteered
for this service. There are five hos
pital corps schools where Navy
corpsmen and trained by Navy
nurses.
Capt. Dauser believes nursing,
nutrition and proper institutional
management and direction are vital
to the care of the wounded. Thus
she indorses the Navy's plan for
giving selected groups of Navy
nurses an intensive nine month COL
lege course in institutional manage
ment and direction, nutrition and
dietetics in the home economics de-
partment Of George Washington
University, under the direction of
Prof. Frances Kirkpatrick. Here
after, each new Navy base hospital
will have on its staff a Navy nurse
trained at George Washington.
Requirements Listed.
Navy nurses, who must be unmar-
ried, graduates of a class A nursing
school, and between the ages of 81
and 40, enter the service with the
rank of ensign. They can become
lieutenant. commanders in peace
time and captains in wartime. The
superintendent of the Navy Nurse
Corps Is responsible directly to the
surgeon general of the Navy.
This years group in training at
George Washington will finish the
course Tuesday and receive orders
Wednesday to report to Navy hos
pitalS.
For several years one of the fea-
lures OF the course has been a final
test luncheon given by each sue
ceeding group of Navy nurses. The
guests of honor at this years lunch
con, held last week, included DR..
Cloyd Heck Marvin, president of the
university; Rear Admiral Ross T.
McIntire, surgeon general of the
Navy: Capt. Dauser, DR.. Walter A.
Bloedorn, dean of the George Wash
ington University medical school;
Prof. Kirkpatrick and other univer-
sity officials. The luncheon was
planned, cooked and served by Navy
nurses.
Navy nurses, Capt. Dauser said,
also are being trained as physio-
therapists and as anesthetists.
Soon Learn Navy Terms.
There Is distinctly nautical flavor
about the speech of Capt. Dauser
and her Navy nurses. This is as
it should be-" she said. ''Part of the
training for our Navy nurses is in
the usages and traditions Of our
Navy and an understanding of its
terms. A Navy nurse who talks
civilian too long often earns the
uncomplimentary designation of "a
boots. Navy nurses early learn to
refer to stairs as ladders and floors
as decks To tidy up a ward is to
police it. Walls are "bulkheads.
A hospital is a sick bay Brooms
are 'swabs.' A rumor is 'scuttle-
but"
One of a family of eight children,
the discipline of the nursing pro-
fession has not been difficult for
Capt. Dauser. Born at Anaheim,
Calf, she was educated at the Full
1erton High School, near there, and
at Leland Stanford University, be-
fore receiving her nurses training
in Los Angeles. From her position
as head nurse at the hospital where
she trained, she entered the service
of the Navy in the last war. Her
first assignment, at the Philadel-
phia Navy Yard, was a prelude to
ner being sent overseas to serve in
a combat zone.
After the Armistice she was sent
to a French port, where she helped
with the evacuation of wounded
United States servicemen. On her
return to America she remained
with the Navy. Tours of duty at
home and abroad followed. Her for
eign duty has included service in
Guam and the Philippines and a
six-month cruise as chief nurse on
a hospital ship in the maneuvers
with the fleet in Hawaiian, South
Pacific and New Zealand waters.
Freeman Dental Society.