Hospitals, dispensaries and medical attendance are seldom as accessible in the country as in cities. To have the rural nurse a resident in the community, her services for all regardless of any lines of distinction, to have intelligent nursing care for patients in their own homes, and instruction and demonstration given in the principles of hygiene, not only of person but as applied to home surroundings, are advantages which have been appreciated wherever the visiting nurse is established.
The best physicians have welcomed her assistance. No stronger testimony to the value of her services is needed than the present demand for public health workers in connection with industrial establishments, department stores, religious and civic institutions and health departments of city, town and county.
Women of the finest type are needed for this work and those who have had specialized training in public health activities. Several visiting nursing associations to be utilized as training centers for Red Cross nurses offer good opportunities for students to become familiar with social work of various kinds through lectures, study courses and affiliations with philanthropic societies in the city. Nurses may thus come in contact with milk stations, dispensaries, tuberculosis and charity organization societies, settlements and other social agencies.
Nurses eligible for appointment to the Rural Nursing Service, who have not already had experience or training in visiting nursing, after a minimum period of three months with a city nursing association will be placed one month with an association in the country, thus giving them actual experience in rural nursing and its problems before assignment to their post of duty. It is important that the rural nurse be informed upon the various branches of public health nursing and social service, as carried on in cities, in order that she may initiate work along these lines in country places where it is often wholly unorganized. She should be able to recognize contagious diseases and minor ailments among school children. By giving simple health talks in the schools, she is able to utilize one of the most advantageous avenues for influencing the home life of her people.
Local societies and clubs, the aim of which is to improve unfavorable conditions that exist in their communities can establish a no more fruitful source of helpfulness than by the employment of a visiting nurse. Red Cross Chapters will find in such an undertaking not only a means of creating interest in local work of the Red Cross, but opportunity of enlarging their field of usefulness to the community. The experience of the Red Cross Chapter in Islip, Long Island, in the employment of a rural nurse has long ago proven the value of this plan of work.
Home Nursing and First Aid Instruction For Women
Miss Marion L. Oliver,
In Charge of Organization of Classes.
Believing that the physical welfare of the race depends largely upon home conditions and that the women of the nation have a very definite responsibility in maintaining the health of the family, the American Red Cross has undertaken to organize on a national scale classes for women in home nursing and first aid. It is hoped that this instruction will make them better home makers, better mothers and better citizens. Before describing what has been accomplished in this direction, it is best to give details of the plan adopted. This can be done most briefly by quoting from the official circular relating to the same.
Plan of Instruction for Women.
The American Red Cross has decided to organize classes of instruction for women in first aid, home nursing, hygiene and allied subjects, to be given under the supervision of the National Committee on Red Cross Nursing Service.