Description |
The Weber County Chapter of the Red Cross began in December 1915 when a small group of individuals gathered to begin organizing a chapter of the Red Cross. In 1962, the name was changed to the Bonneville chapter, and in 1969, the chapter merged with other chapters in Northern Utah to become the Northern Utah Chapter, with its headquarters located in Ogden, Utah. The scrapbooks range from 1940 to 2003 and highlight some of the important work of the Red Cross. The books include photographs, newspaper clippings, and other materials. |
OCR Text |
Show TUESDAY EVENING, MAY 27, 1941 RED CROSS OF COUNTY SIGNS MORE NURSES Fifteen Ready for Service If Crisis Arises In This Area Disasters and epidemics frequently tax the regular nursing facilities of a community beyond their strength, and war brings terrible suffering that may in a measure be alleviated by proper nursing service. From these two facts has arisen the service which made the name of the American Red Cross famous throughout the world long before the public generally became acquainted with the manifold activities of the organization. The Red Cross nursing service includes all enrolled Red Cross nurses-that large group of nurses who are engaged in various types of nursing throughout the country and who have indicated their willingness to serve under the Red Cross if needed, and the relatively small group who are regularly employed by the Red Cross as field and headquarters staffs, or by the chapters as public health nurses and instructors of home hygiene and care of the sick. It includes also the local and state committees on Red Cross nursing service, which as volunteers serve such an important part both in enrolling and in supplying nurses for Red Cross activities. There are in general three types of service carried on by the Red Cross nursing service. There are the emergency nurses, the instructors and the small number employed as public health nurses. Not every disaster requires the services of nurses, but in some disasters health problems are of immediate and major importance. Injuries, exposure, strain, communicable diseases, births, deaths, must be cared for; the health of mothers, children, old people must be safeguarded. Nurses are needed to staff emergency hospitals, to assist in medical stations and to aid in public health programs. It is then that there is need for temporary nursing service supplemental to that of the community. It is then that the Red Cross responds. The Red Cross nursing service maintains a roll of qualified nurses who have signified their willingness to serve under the Red Cross when emergencies arise. The Red Cross was brought into existence to alleviate the war-time pain of fighters and injured noncombatants. This is the major responsibility of the organization, although its other services have grown to mammoth proportions. A proclamation of the United States president in 1911 designated the Red Cross as the only volunteer agency permitted to render aid to the U. S. land and naval forces in wartime. Enrolled Red Cross nurses constitute the serve for both the army and navy nurse corps. No nurse is accepted for enrollment in the nursing service unless she signifies her willingness to serve in wartime. When a local disaster cocurs and nurses are needed for immediate duty, they are reached through the local committee on Red Cross nursing service. That committee in Weber county chapter is comprised of Mrs. L. S. Merrill, Mrs. Katherine Echenbrecht and Mrs. Lucille Brown, chairman. IT is a state committee subsidiary. Must Be Graduate The nurse who enrolls must ge a graduate of an approved nursing school and preparation in the nursing care of communicable diseases is highly desirable. Certain hospital experience may be replaced with certain postgraduate study, but this is determined in individual cases by the service. Citizenship is another requirement. The applicant must be at least 21 and not over 40 years of age, single, widowed or divorced, and she must be affiliated with the American Nurses’ association. She must also meet physical requirements and be immunized against typhoid, paratyphoid, diphtheria and smallpox. She must also be endorsed by the school from which she graduated. Ogden’s nursing service has about 15 trained-to-the-minute women registered for immediate duty if needed, either as army or navy nurses or at home or in the vicinity in case of catastrophe. Others who might want to register may do so by contacting any of the committee members. As Weber Red Cross Enlists Nurses for Emergency ENROLLED…Nurse Lucille Taylor is shown above being enrolled in the American Red Cross nursing service by the local nursing committee of Weber county chapter. Mrs. L. S. Merrill, Mrs. Katherine Echenbrecht and Mrs. Lucille Brown (left to right) comprise the nursing service committee. |