| Show REO MED GROSS CROSS OBSERVES NURSING anniversary ta rat 1937 marks year of public health nursing in rural of areas it rl prior to inauguration ot of the red nil A cross town and country nursing ser d vice in 1912 no national effort was CIE made to bring nursing skill to the rural 4 sickbed james L fleser fieser vice chairman in charge ot of domestic operations lit ae tor for the american red cross said today ain ti in commenting on the silver hanniver to 0 o sary ot of red cross public health nurs il ing thi bi t in a plea tor for an increased member ill all ship during the coming red cross an nual roll call held from november 11 esa to the mr fieser pointed out that red cross rural nursing rounds out 25 years ot of continuous service this year M t it is essential activities such as this dl ll which the american people support but through membership lie said in 1910 lillian wald then head resident ort 0 ot of the henry street settlement ke alln in new york city proposed that the ad 11 american red cross pioneer in the held field III ot of rural nursing public health nurses were active in urban districts but no hate similar provision had been made to th it guard the health ot of the rural dweller jailes miss wald felt that the red cross was best qualified tor for the undertaking ica through its long experience in convert ea ling humanitarian ideals into practical tt accomplishment loil two years later the first red cross 0 o ural rural nurse set forth upon her rounds tain t j in a county in massachusetts jacob member ot of the red cross board TIP nt ot of incorporators and mrs whitelaw reid each contributed funds to start 04 1 the project special courses ot of training 01 ol for nurses resulted in young women who thoroughly knew the mechanics ot of this new job by 1918 there were rural nursing services conducted by red cross chapters and 18 months later the number ot of services had skyrocketed sky rocketed to 2000 as the signing ot of the armistice released a flood ot of war nurses tor for peacetime peace time duty reorganization and consolidation eventually cut the number of public health nurses serving under the red cross flag mr fleser stated but as a group their efficiency increased mr air 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 services were established by the red cross he said during the past 15 years 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 of 0 those these children were helped through treatment at the present time there are red cross public health nurses engaged in health work in rural communities muni ties and last year more than visits were made on behalf ot of the sick it has been our purpose from the first mr air fleser emphasized to demonstrate that rural al 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 of organized red cross volunteers many red cross chapters carry on extensive civilian relief during the past year needy families received this type ot of tied red cross help I 1 |
