Objects.
1. To afford women the opportunity to learn first aid to the injured, and to provide simple instruction in the home care of the sick.
2. To afford women the opportunity to learn how to prepare food for sick and well.
3. To afford women the opportunity to learn how to prepare rooms and other places for the reception of ill and injured.
4. To afford women the opportunity to learn how to protect their own health and that of their families.
It must be distinctly understood that this course of instruction for women is only intended to prepare them to render emergency assistance in case of accident, to give more intelligent care to their own families under competent direction, and, in exceptional cases, to assist in relief work under the supervision of the Nursing Service of the American Red Cross.
Need.
Much needless suffering is now caused the ill and injured on account of the ignorance of unskilled persons. It has been said that the fate of the injured is dependent on the care which their injuries first receive. It is therefore necessary for everybody to learn what to do first in an emergency, and what not to do. This is easy to learn, but the subject must be learned. Nobody can be expected to know this without instruction. The number of people injured in the United States is rapidly mounting and is now in the hundreds of thousands annually. Knowledge of first aid to the injured cannot, it is true, prevent the consequent suffering entirely, but it can be made an important factor in this result.
The health of the family depends largely upon the home maker, and it is most essential that she have a definite knowledge of personal and household hygiene and the proper preparation of food. Special diet for the sick is no less essential. Scarcely any woman is unacquainted with the sick room in her own family, and some simple instruction in the care of the sick should be a part of every woman’s education.
It is the purpose of the Red Cross to provide for this instruction.