Show RED CROSS OBSERVES OBSERVES NURSING anniversary 1937 marks year of public health pursing nursing in rural areas prior to inauguration ot of the rod cross town and country nursing service in 1912 no national effort was made to bring nursing skill to the rural sickbed james L fieux flesca vice chairman in charge of domestic operations for the american red cross said today in commenting on the silver anniversary ot of red cross public health nursing in a plea tor for an increased membership during the coming red cross annual roll call held from november 11 to the mr fieser pointed out that red cross rural nursing rounds out 25 years ot of continuous service this year it is essential ac activities tivi ties such as this which the american people support membership he said in 1910 lillian wald then head resident of 0 the henry street settlement in new york city proposed that the american red cross pioneer in the field of rural nursing public health nurses were active in urban districts but no similar provision had been made to guard the health of 0 the rural dweller miss wald felt that the red cross was wag best qualified for the undertaking through its long experience in converting humanitarian ideals into practical accomplishment two years later the first red cross rural nurse set forth upon her rounds in a county in massachusetts jacob member of cross board of incorporators and mrs airs whitelaw held each contributed funds to start the project special courses of training for nurses resulted in young women who thoroughly auw anaw tho the mechanics of 1 this new job 1 by 1918 there were rural nursing services conducted by red cross crosa chapters and 18 months later the number of services had skyrocketed sky rocketed to 2000 as the signing ot of the armistice released a food flood ot of war nurses tor for peacetime peace time duty beor reorganization and consolidation eventually cut the number ot of public health nurses serving under the red cross flag mr fleser stated but as a group their efficiency increased mr fleser fieser called attention to a study ot of red cross public health nursing accomplishments since the service was begun statistics show that in all nearly nearl Y services were established by the tha red cross he said during the past 16 years publio public health nurses were assigned to chapters and a total ot of visits were made to or in behalf of 0 patients each year during the past 11 more than rural school children have been found to have physical detects defects each year ot of these children were helped through treatment at the present time there are red cr cross oss public health nurses engaged in health work in rural communities muni ties and last year more than visits were made on behalf of 0 the sick it has been our purpose from the first mr fieser emphasized to demonstrate demona that rural nursing was needed and could be organized in many instances we have turned established community nursing services over to local health authorities when this was done we turned our effort toward opening up additional virgin territory other red cross services supported by roll call memberships are life saving first aid disaster relief and the work ot of organized red cross volunteers |