Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 207, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1917 — Public Health Nurses Can Best Serve Country by Staying at Posts [ARTICLE]

Public Health Nurses Can Best Serve Country by Staying at Posts

By Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, Sr.

Head of the American Ambulance Hospital in Paris

One of the great needs of America will be for public health nursing. The organizations which are engaged in this work, instead of being weakened by loss of membership, should be strengthened to meet the increased demands which will be made upon them. Trained and experienced nurses who are now taking care of women, children and tubercular patients in their homes and in dispensaries, can do no greater work for the country and for humanity than by remaining on their jobs. They must not consider themselves slackers or feel that they are lacking in patriotism if they stick to their daily round of duties. On the contrary, it would be absolutely wrong for them to give up their work and jump'at the first chance which offers for war service abroad. Somebody has to take care of the women and children while the men are at the front. It is irrational for those who take care of them, and who know and understand their needs, to fly off to some other place and work and leave them at the mercy of inexperienced workers. We all, know that war breaks down home conditions. Sickness and poverty follow in its wake and there are a thousand and one ills, which have to be met and overcome. Who can do this better than the public health nurse who belongs to a well-organized group of workers which is able to combat just such conditions? At the beginning of the war it was my first impulse to close the Vanderbilt dispensary in Paris to women and children and devote it to the care of wounded soldiers. ■ On second thought I realized that would be a mistake just because everybody was doing the same thing. I never regretted following my more mature judgment. Ip a short time our attendance increased from 115 to 250. I believe we saved any number of the future citizens of France by simply thinking twice and sticking to our original work.