“BROKEN THIGH.” FIRST AID PRACTICE.
Red Cross Nursing Service
Miss Jane A. Delano,
Chairman National Committee.
The rapid development of the Nursing Service of the Red Cross and the solidarity of its various activities are encouraging signs of future growth and more extended usefulness.
Our state and local committees of nurses, organized primarily for the enrollment of Red Cross nurses, have responded with enthusiasm whenever new demands have been made upon them. We now have more than five hundred representative nurses serving on these committees throughout the United States, and their co-operation and interest may be depended upon to further any work undertaken by the Red Cross. They have been most active in the sale of Christmas Seals and have co-operated with local tuberculosis agencies, often serving on special committees. In organizing our Rural Nursing Service we have sought their advice and assistance. They have suggested nurses for rural work and have given valuable information in regard to the needs of their own communities. Further details concerning this important service is given by Miss Clement, superintendent of rural nurses.
Our local committees are found ready to assist in relief work at celebrations and parades, and appreciate the opportunities for experience thus offered. The District of Columbia committee, of which Miss Anna J. Greenlees is chairman, secured the nurses required for relief stations established in Washington during inaugural week. A report of the work of these stations appears in this number of the Magazine.
The National Committee on Nursing Service, in co-operation with the First Aid Department, has been authorized by the Red Cross to organize classes of instruction for women in Home Nursing and First Aid. Once more we must appeal to our local committees of nurses for their assistance. The plan adopted requires that the instruction in Home Nursing shall be given by enrolled Red Cross nurses, who must, in a large measure, be secured through the local committees. As the work develops we hope that nurses especially qualified to instruct women in the principles of right living and the home care of the sick may be found willing to devote their whole time to this instruction. Even two classes a day would give a fair income and an opportunity to render valuable service to a community. Information concerning these classes for women is given in this issue by Miss Oliver, in charge of their organization.
Believing that the course in first aid adopted by the Red Cross would be valuable even to graduate nurses, arrangements have been made with the First Aid Department to allow enroled Red Cross nurses to take this course at home. The textbook written by Major Charles Lynch must be used, and nurses who so desire will be allowed to take an examination under the direction of a physician appointed by the Red Cross. To those who pass this examination a Red Cross First Aid Certificate will be issued.