For the procuring of certain items of which there is no supply in stock or which are not usually stocked, authority is given the station to obtain proposals locally either because the quantity is insignificant, the value small, not justifying the cost of transportation, or because the station can more advantageously obtain the particular item requisitioned.
Of course this routine regarding requisitions does not apply to emergency requests. They are always cleared without delay and every effort made to furnish the supplies called for as expeditiously as possible.
It is not a part of the functions of the Purveying Service to approve or disapprove requisitions for hospital supplies. This duty is performed by an officer who represents the Marine Hospital Division and who works in the office of the Medical Purveyor that the prompt handling of requisitions may not be delayed. It is greatly in your favor if you have in the eyes of the approving officer a reputation for practicing economy in the use of supplies. Many of you have not met this approving officer, but you are all old friends of his. He has made you acquaintance through handling the requisitions prepared under your direction and he has formed a very accurate idea of your ability to foresee your needs. He knows whether your requisitions are closely scrutinised before you approve them, or whether your chief aim in life is to have the contents of the Supply Depot shipped to your station before the other fellow gets it.”
LIEUT. JOEL T. BOONE, U. S. NAVY: presented the next subject—“The Social Service Worker”, as follows:
“Mr. Chairman, members of the Federal Board of Hospitalization, and fellow guests—
The subject given to me to present is worthy of more expert and more specialized elucidation than I an able to furnish with meager knowledge of the functions of the Social Service Worker. We are interested to know just what position the Social Service Worker should advantageously occupy in our sincere efforts to provide the very best care and the very best care and the very best treatment for those unfortunate individuals who have been disabled in the service of our country or who have suffered disabilities as a result of or traceable to that service during the World War.
My knowledge of the Social Service Worker for the most part is limited to his or her duties associated with Naval institutions. For almost three years I have represented at National Headquarters of the American Red Cross the Surgeon General of the Navy, who is the Navy Department’s representative on the National Executive Committee. My official position has been one of liaison but, in the organization of the Rod Cross, I am the Director of the Bureau of Naval Affairs. In that position it has been my privilege to assist in the adoption of a Naval-Red Cross program for the carrying out of one of the purposes of the Red Cross Congressional Charter, which obligates the Red Cross to act, “in natters of voluntary relief, and in accord with the military and naval authorities as a medium of communication between the people of the United States of America and their Army and Navy.”
In my investigations as to the sphere of the Social Service Worker, I have found two schools of thought or two groups interpreting the meaning of the Social Service Worker differently. One group limits the definition to that personnel which deals with purely personal and community problems of individuals, and also to those who are trained medical social service workers; while the second group, sees no limitation to the field of operation by a highly specialized worker in dealing with an individual’s welfare. The first group separates the recreational, amusement, entertainment and athletic directors from the strictly medical social service workers; while again the second group consider the amusement personnel as properly placed under the category of social service workers.
We are not particularly interested here in this academic discussion but we should be mindful of it in giving consideration to the organization and administration of our hospitals. There is a limit to all things so the social service worker is limited in his or her field of activity. We seem to be living in an age of specialization. We need sanity in the practice of our professions irrespective of their nature; and what is just as essential, we need good practical common horse sense and not too much theory.
I believe the Commanding Officer can be rated a skilled social service worker more competent to deal with the problems of his patient than any other individual, if he is a keen observer of human nature, if he has the interest of the patient at heart, if he searches for, what we call, the soul of the man and not merely observe his flesh and blood, if he is determined to correct the mental restlessness as well as the physical agony, if he considers his patient individually and not as a case, and if he impresses on his patient that no one is as much interested in him as his Commanding Officer. No one in an institution should be able to take the Commanding Officer’s place in the sympathetic understanding of the patient. Of those in the military and naval service it has been said, that the uniform stands like a closed door between officer and patient. There should be no reason for this. If it exists, the officer is responsible.