Preparing To Be A Home Nurse
Red Cross home nursing instruction is offered free
to everyone who needs and wants the training. The course
is based on two premises: one that care of the sick and
injured at home is primarily a family responsibility;
and, two, that in the event of a major disaster basic
nursing skills can be readily adapted to the care of a
great number of casualties.
Home nursing instruction provides and opportunity to
learn how to carry out the doctor’s orders when caring
for the sick at home, how to adapt nursing skill in an
emergency, and how to make the best use of time, energy,
and available equipment. The course includes the
procedures used most frequently in caring for the sick
at home and in helping professional nurses to care for
the sick or injured in a shelter, and emergency
hospital, or other medical facility when a disaster has
occurred.
The instructions given in this textbook assume that
any care given the patient, other than emergency first
aid, is ordered by physician and that the general
nursing care of the patient is under the supervision of
the attending physician or registered professional
nurse. Following a natural disaster, and particularly in
the event of an enemy-caused disaster, medical and
nursing assistance may not be immediately available, and
survival may be dependent upon the ability to help
oneself. Preparedness for any kind of disaster includes
knowing how to help oneself and one’s family and
neighbors and implies a willingness to give assistance
to others when the need arises. Self-help and mutual aid
are primary objectives of Red Cross and civil defense
disaster preparedness programs and are citizenship
responsibilities of all the people.
The time to learn home nursing skill is now. Illness
occurs at any day or hour, and it is far better to be
prepared to provide the needed care that to have to say
later: “I wish I had known this when my mother was Ill”;
or “It would have been so helpful to know how to do this
when my husband got hurt.” How to perform simple nursing
skills should be learned before illness or accident
occurs.
During the emergency period following a disaster
much ingenuity may be needed to improvise equipment and
to provide the necessary nursing care to the ill and
injured. People who have taken the Red Cross home
nursing course would be needed to help give nursing
care, for they would be prepared to work under trying
condition with only limited guidance and supervision.
Home nursing instruction is of especial value to
young adults of high school and college age. This
instruction not only prepares young people to assist in
an emergency at home or in the community but also give
them some understanding of nursing skills they will need
as parents. Home nursing instruction also helps them to
gain an insight into what it means to be a nurse.
Participation in such training and the opportunity to
assist in caring for an ill person may be determining
factors in choosing a nursing career.
See also:
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