| Show RED GROSS CROSS OBSERVES NURSING anniversary 1937 marks year of public publio health nursing in rural areas prior to inauguration of the red cross town and country nursing ser vice in 1912 no national effort was made to bring nursing skill to the rural sickbed james L fleser vice chair man in charge of domestic operations tor for the american bed red cross said today in commenting on the silver hanniver sary of bed red cross public health nurs ing in a R plea for an increased member ship during the coming bed red cross an nual boll roll call held from november 11 II to the mr fleser pointed out that bed red cross rural nursing rounds out 25 years of continuous service this year it is essential activities such as this which the american people support through membership he said in 1910 lillian wald then head real dent of the henry street settlement in new york city proposed that the american bed red cross pioneer in the field 0 of f rural nursing public health nurses were active in urban districts but no similar provision had been made to suard guard the health of the rural dweller miss wald felt that the bed red cross was best qualified tor for the undertaking through its long experience in convert ing humanitarian ideals into practical accomplishment two years later the first bed red cross rural nurse set forth upon her rounds in a county in massachusetts jacob member of the red cross board of incorporators and mrs whitelaw aw beld reid each contributed funds to start the project special cod course riGs of lot training for nursema resulted la tu 1001 w who ho thoroughly knew the mechanics of this new job by there were rural nursing services conducted by red cross chap and 18 months later the number of services had skyrocketed to 2000 2 as the signing of the armistice released a flood of war nurses tor for peace time duty reorganization and consolidation eventually cut the number ot of public health nurses serving under the red cross flag mr fieser stated but as a group their efficiency increased mr fieser fleser called attention to a study of red cross public health nursing ac since the service was begun statistics show that in all nearly 3 services were established by the red cross he said during the past 15 years 6 SOO public health nurses were assigned to chapters and a total ot of 18 visits were made to orin behalf ol 01 patients each year during the past 11 more than rural school children have been found to have physical detects defects each year of these children were helped through treatment at the present time there are red cross public health nurses en in health work in rural corn com muni ties and last year more than 1000 visits were mada mado on behalf of the sick it has been our purpose from the first mr fieser fleser emphasized to demonstrate that rural nursing was needed and could be organized in many instances we have turned established community nursing services over to lo 10 cal health authorities when this was done N TV e turned our effort toward open ing up additional virgin territory other red cross services supported by roll call memberships are life sav ing first aid disaster relief and the work of organized red cross volun many red cross chapters carry on extensive civilian re let lot work during the putt past year needy families I 1 ie atollia ihl this ot of red crusa croas cru sa belp |
