xt7tht2g8s8k https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7tht2g8s8k/data/mets.xml The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. 1929 bulletins  English The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Frontier Nursing Service Quarterly Bulletins The Quarterly Bulletin of The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc., Vol. IV, No. 4, March 1929 text The Quarterly Bulletin of The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc., Vol. IV, No. 4, March 1929 1929 2014 true xt7tht2g8s8k section xt7tht2g8s8k ?
The Quarterly Bulletin of
The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.
I (Successor to Kentucky Committee for Mothers and Babies)
A VOL. IV. MARCH, 1929 NO. 4
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2   BABY EVA
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ENOS AND EVA L·
AS THEY CAME T0 US, AGED THREE WEEKS  
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SIX MONTHS LATER  

 THE WEALTHIEST NATION IN THE WORLD
_ ITS MOTHERS AND CHILDREN
"Perhaps, an accident
Perhaps, an intention?
  r V —Bridge of San Luis Rey.
gi In the course of three weeks there have been three maternal
  deaths in territories not far removed from our nursing stations,
lg for complications which could have been handled by good medical
  care. One mother, we hear, left a three day old baby. One died
lj following a miscarriage. Of course we haven’t the details of
  these cases, since we didn’t see them, but from the information
  we glean it is apparent that these women died from complica-
  1 tions not unlike similar conditions our service has met success-
  fully during almost exactly the same period of time.
  Let us illustrate just by telling the story of the last three I
  abnormal cases which we have handled.
  No. 1 was a miscarriage, like the one which died on Wolf
  Creek. Ours was in the Possum Bend territory. The mis-
  carriage was incomplete and the patient shot up a temperature
  on the third day. We located our consulting surgeon in the
Q distant mining town of Hazard, through a relayed conversation ‘
‘ by telephone. He agreed to come in on the evening train the _
· next day. This train passes a flag station after dark. There the
  surgeon was met by horses and rode on in to the patient’s house
  —a one room log cabin. At nine at night, assisted by two nurses, ·
  he did a curettage—the only light from ‘a lantern, an electric
  flash and the open fire. One nurse gave the anaesthetic, the
Q] other waited on him. On another bed in the same room the
  patient’s children lay sleeping. After the surgeon left,Aone of `
  the nurses remained in the cabin to special the patient, who was
  given special nursing at night as long as she needed it. Her I

 2 THE Q`LlARTERLY_   
. tenure of life hung by the narrowest thread, but brilliant sur-
gery and good nursing saved the day, and she is now restored “ 
to her family. `
No 2, a young married woman of seventeen, expecting her I
first baby, came on a visit to her parents in the Beech Fork
territory in order to be near the nurse-midwives for her con- ‘
iinement. They did not know of her arrival, though she had {
been there two days. She was seven months pregnant. At two °
in the morning there came a call that she was in convulsions.
She had seven terrible convulsions one right after the other. y
Her young husband rode off for the nearest doctor in an ad- — _!
joining county, but it was twenty-one and a half hours before  
he could come. Meanwhile the nurse-midwives proceeded with ,
the routine authorized by our Medical Advisory Committee for  
cases of eclampsia, and this the doctor continued after his T
arrival. He stayed the night, leaving directions for the pro-  
cedures to be carried on after he had gone, because it would be  T
impossible for him to return. His territory covers a thousand ‘
square miles. Iniiuenza and pneumonia were raging and the g `
patients in the Beech Fork area were the only ones, except at , 
his own headquarters, getting even nursing care. This patient ‘
also had a special nurse every night as long as one was needed. j
The baby, dead from the profound toxaemia, was born spon-  
l taneously a few days later. The girl-mother is alive today, with  
youth and hope still beckoning her, and health nearly restored. if
N0. 3. This patient, another young married woman, had i
such small measurements that it was plain she could not give _
birth normally to any but a very small baby. This type of case ?·
we try to persuade to let us take altogether out of the mountains, i
on passes furnished by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and
put under one of our consulting obstetricians in one of the large
cities, who give their services. But this patient was timid and l
could not face the thought of leaving home. We failed in per- ' yl
. suading her, but, as we could not abandon her to her fate, we ·
arranged a medical examination with the same doctor from an I
j adjoining county who had handled the eclamptic. He carried ‘
the confinement through, and Baby Betty, though tiny, is all  ,
the reward any of us need for the weeks of anxiety we have » A
felt on her mother’s behalf.  ji
l
l
§
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a S l

 Q FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE 3
These illustrations are given to show that the Frontier
 t Nursing Service is not only able to take care of normal confine-
‘ ments, but that it can meet the abnormal also, through its medi-
[ cal and surgical consultants. Within a comparatively few miles
there have occurred over a short period of time these six ab-
. normal obstetrical cases. The three who had only old neighbors
{ to take care of them are all dead. The three who called in the
{ nurse-midwives of the Frontier Nursing Service, and through
them got the skilled medical care they could not have reached
,- alone, are all living. The difference is one between life and death.
hl;
I THE CURSE OF THE FRONTIER CHILD
  "Practica1ly all childre11 in a country with backward sanitation need
Q worming regularly. Worms are a fearful handicap to growing children and
 ( often cause severe attacks of illness, with high temperature, due to the
 · elimination of the discharges of the worms in the children; as well as
  constant anaemia and ill health."
X ` ——Excerpt from the Routine, authorized by the
• Medical Advisory Committee of the Frontier Nursing Service.
One of the Hyden nurses responded to a maternal call out-
 . side the limits of her district. In the same cabin four year old
. Ray was too s·ick to get up. His temperature was 100, his pulse
il 156, his respirations 52. During the night and day preceding
i his death he vomited thirty large worms. Of what did this
l little child die?
_ Three year old Hannah, from another house on another
¥ creek, has also been very ill, but she is getting better. After
i 4 worming, she passed seventy-five round worms, not one of them
less than six inches long.
In telling these stories so plainly, we know that we lay
l ourselves open to criticism by those who think only in the
'   niceties of language. But we who share the lives of our people
» are unable to frame our language to please the sensibilities of
I the unimaginative. We can contemplate with equanimity the
- ravages of the worms upon our mortal bodies when we have
 Q discarded them, but as citizens of the wealthiest nation in the
. world we resent odering up to these Minotaurs the living bodies ‘
  of our young children.
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 ` 4 _*_M-__ J`!-{IC QL¥A§2E&DLEUI.I.ld'l‘|N '___________~___"_é )¤
i THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A DISTRICT AND  `
° . A COUNTY NURSING SYSTEM  ·_ 
We are often asked about this. Visiting nursing associa—  
tions are integral units of all our American cities, sometimes as  
part of a generalized system including baby hygiene, mental i
hygiene, tuberculosis, public health, etc., and sometimes as i p
_ separate services caring only for the sick. They are nearly "
always under voluntary boards and are supported by voluntary
contributions. In addition, the cities also have health depart- i
ments, with nurses, and frequently carry the health of the school *
children as well. _  
i The work of county nurses is analogous to that of city
health department nurses, plus the school nursing. A county
health department is as essential as a city health department,
but county nursing. does not take the place of visiting district V
nursing. The rural sections need visiting nursing, on a district Q
family basis, much more than cities need it, because they have ii
less of everything else. i
” The Frontier Nursing Service does not attempt to concern -*
itself with the problems of the accessible rural counties in the i
United States, which are reached in different ways by existing
national organizations. A great many of these have county _
nurses, but except where such counties embrace in their are:-1 °»
large cities or wealthy estates, they have none of them the
equivalent of the city visiting nurse associations. Nevertheless, _
they are accessible, and the adjustment of their difficulties is
not one which the Frontier Nursing Service can make its
concern.
The Frontier Nursing Service has come into existence in I
order to provide a district nursing, {midwifery and child hygiene
_ service for the inaccessible, difficult areas, mostly in the moun- [
tain ranges. Its bounderies are topographical and not artificial.
y - It works on a regional and not a county basis, and divides its
nursing areas into districts, every part of which is accessible to ~
its own nursing center. It_functions in territores where no
other agency is at work, and such territories still, in the United
States, aggregate the size of an empire and are inhabited by
z ` M . _  

 I · l&N'1'I1CI·l NURSING SERVICE 5
' millions· of people. It aims to provide the same painstaking
I individual family nursing care, especially for the helpless and
.  the young, that is taken as a matter of course among the poor
 ` in cities, but is unobtainable for our finest old American stock
 _ in the outposts of our country. Such cases as we have described
in the first pages of this Bulletin are only reached by a district
  family nursing association working in the homes.
l The cost of such a service can be met only to a small extent
  by the people making use of it; but then the cost of visiting
 I nursing in cities is met only to a s·mall extent by the people
_ making use of it. Such work is financed by voluntary contribu-
` tions handled by voluntary boards. In our June Bulletin, when
  we will as usual lay before the public a complete audit and
1 accounting for the year of all our financial affairs, we purpose
jg giving at the same time an outline of the program which our
trustees have ass·umed for the next few years and the way in
‘ which they are meeting it. Those who have followed our work
i from the beginning know that after our first fiscal and nursing
I ’ year we had a study made of costs and issued it immediately,
showing the cost of our service per visit and per capita. These
compared favorably with the costs of similar services in cities
where distances are not so great but where rents are high. \Ve
feel that the public, which has so generously supported our first
# three and a half years of existence, and never so generously as
  during this past year, would like to know the plans our trustees
i are making for the support of the Service, which is extending
i its territory rapidly, and demons·trating nearly every day that
  the difference it makes in the areas it covers is one between
life and death.
l """?`" `77"' "
I We wish to thank the New York Times and the Philadelphia
Public Ledger, the one for its editorial and the other for its
special feature article covering our work. Both were written
. in the restrained and accurate style which is the only kind of 1
publcity of service to us——but such publicity is of very real
‘ service.
I

 G —r“_— THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN
FIELD NOTES VQ
We regret to report the serious illness of the wife of Judge  
Dixon, our regional chairman of the nursing centers on the  
Middle Fork of the Kentucky River. Mrs. Dixon has a wide i
circle of friends as well as many strong family ties, and her  
recovery is anxiously awaited by us all.  
* =l< · *
The principal of the Hyden grade school, Mr. Jesse Lewis,
has instituted hot lunches for the children coming in from the
creeks and branches around Hyden. Each outside child gets a `
bowl of soup or cocoa at noon every day. To this we have the
privilege of contributing nutritive biscuits, quantities of which  
are sent to us every monih by Nlrr. A.   Bixler of New York.
Under the leadershp of Mr. Charley Woods, a Parent-
Teachers Association has been formed on Bull Creek. At a re-
cent meeting it was voted to build a clinic there for the use of  
the Frontier Nursing Service, one of whose nurses spends a A
day there each week. Voluntary contributions have been taken  
up to cover everything. Twenty-seven hundred feet of lumber -
have already been given, "on the hoof," as it were, for it is in i
the form of forest trees. A widow has donated her son and a P;
team of mulesto bring them down to the sawmill, which has (
, donated the sawing. One man is giving all the nails. This is  
l in keeping with the extraordinarily progressive spirit always I
shown by this particularly inaccessble community. Mr. Woods’ {
school has 100% of its children inoculated against typhoid and i
diphtheria, and practically all the children under school age in ` i
the same neighborhood have also been inoculated.
>i< >|= ={<
The nurses at Red Bird River have at last got a well—185
feet and 4 inches deep, with 75 feet of casing. It took all of  
that to reach the water, and the total cost has been nearly $1,000. j
And yet we are often asked why people in rural districts have (
an unsanitary water supply! Nobody prefers an open surface \
well—but it is cheap.  
* * >1¢ {
The F. N. S. has just bought forty—seven acres between
Hyden and Wendover for a pasture for horses when they are
off duty. We have found it necessary to keep more horses than 1

 T FRONTIER. NURSING SERVICE 7
,  nurses, because horses haven’t the resistance of nurses and are
l out of condition much oftener. They badly need a little green,
ij especially in the spring, and a place where they can relax oc-
  casionally. We have studied, with great profit to ourselves, the
" work of the Robinson Experiment Station at Quicksand, and
l are going to plant our mountain pasture after the methods they
  have demonstrated to be successful. One of our trustees at
l Hyden, Mr. Walter Hoskins, is regotiating the purchase and
drawing up the deed for us, as one of his many similar gifts to
, the Service.
>I< * >l=
, The mountains have had their fill of influenza and pneu-
ll monia this winter. The s·uffering among the people has been
, terrible and the tax upon our nursing system heavy, although
only four of us have been ill ourselves.
We are so happy to report that Dr. Stoddard, who has been
· desperately ill from pneumonia, has safely pulled through. In
l the territory left without medical care during the epidemic, be-
T· cause of his illness, Dr. Hiram C. Capps has carried on. It will
l be remembered that his position as health officer in Leslie was
I made possible through special grants from the U. S. Public
if Health Service and the State Board, the county meeting a sixth
  of the cost.
I * * >l<
'i We often say that nobody comes to see us in the winter,
ll and indeed it is rare for a guest to make the hard trip in at this  
  time. But this January we did have such a guest in Miss
·   Theresa Kraker, widely known among public health nurses all
‘ over America. She met all the difficulties of the season gallant-
ly, even learning to ride in order to get about with the nurses
. over trails the buckboard could not possibly cover. Her visit
] has been a huge help to us in connection with more than one
i problem. V
{ * =!= =|< ’
l The nurse in the picture of Enos and Eva as they first came N
H to us, is Doris Park, and the one in the lower picture is Ellen
if Halsall. It is to the devotion and skill of these two nurses that
we owe the lives of two of the most acceptable babies that ever
graced this planet. One of the younger nurses is shown on the
l cover with the enlarged picture of Eva. She is Doris Beaumont.

 A______*_vA A_`__;l£¢El'1`1¤RLY BULLETIN _ X
The only sadness in the growth or our young organization
is that we must measure the passage of time by the deaths of
our friends. In our last Bulletin we had to record the passing
· of one in Detroit. Now we feel with equal poignancy the loss
_ from our Cincinnati Committee of Mrs. John F. Winslow, whose
early encouragement three years ago was one of the largest ‘
factors in getting our work sponsored by that great city.
>l¢ * *
Within the past month, the Frontier Nursing Service has
suffered a great and irreparable loss in the death of Mrs. William
` Erskine Simms. Since the very beginning of the organization,
Mrs. Simms and her family have aided the work through gifts  
of time, energy and substance. As trustee of the Frontier `,__,,
Nursing,Service, Mrs. Simms stood ready in any emergency to lf}
give of her counsel and strength to the affairs of the Service. l
Through the consecration of her life, she wielded an influence
J very real and important throughout her own community and
the State at large. She was kind and gentle, generous and un-
selfish, noble in thought and deed. Permeating all her qualities
A of mind and character was a deep inner spirituality. She drew
her strength from "the day-spring from on high," and the
reality of her Christian faith made strong and valuable all her
relationships with those about her.
We, fellow-members of the Frontier Nursing Service, will
miss her always, and we will often in future wish we could have
the privilege of her companionship and counsel. Our deep
* sympathy goes forth to her brother, Dr. A. J. A. Alexander, our
‘ chairman since the organization of the association, and to Mrs.
· Alexander, her devoted sister-in-law, who is also one of our
trustees. For her husband and daughters and little grandchild,
we feel the greatest sorrow, and we wish that in some measure
We could express to them our full realization of their loss, which
is also in some measure our loss. The memory of Lucy Alexander
Simms will serve as a beacon light to us for further endeavor.
The radiancy of her spirit will yet live amongst us, and will in-
spire those who are left on this earth to try and help other
mothers to attain in some degree to the fullness and beauty of ,°_
her Womanhood. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall V A
Y: God." M. P. J. /  

 FRONTIEH NURSING SERVICE 9
THE FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE, Inc.
Executive Group
Chairman
Dr. Alexander J. A. Alexander, Spring Station, Vifoodtord County
Vice-Chairmen
Mrs.   C. Henning, Cherokee Park, Louisville
Judge Edward O'Hear, Frankfort
/\ Treasurer
Mr. C. N. Manning, Security Trust Company, Lexington
!,.!:
il} Recording Secretary
I Mrs. W. H. Coffman, Georgetown
Corresponding Secretary
Mrs. Joseph Carter, Versailles
Mrs. S. Tliruston Ballard, Louisville
Dr. Scott Brecklnridge, Lexington
Dr. Josephine Hunt, Lexington
Mrs. Preston Johnston, Fayette County
Mr. E. S. Jouett, Louisville
Mrs. Frank McVey. Lexington
Miss Linda Neville, Lexington
Chairman and Vice Chairmen District Committees
Judge \Villiam Dixon, \`Vooton Judge L. D. Lewis, Hyden
Mr. Walter Hoskins, Hyden Mr. Sherman Cook, Asher
Mrs. Taylor Morgan, Wendover Mr. Boyd Campbell, Confluence
Mr. Cicero Feltner, Big Creek Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Begley, Hyden,
Mr. Sherman Eversole, Hyden. Treasurer (ln Leslie)
Mr. Wm. Marcum, Manchester,, Treasurer (in Clay).
Mr. Thomas L. Britton, Big Creek
Director 2
Mrs. Mary Breckinridgs, H. N., Wendover above Hyden, Leslie County
Office Secretary
Miss Marion Ross, B.A., \Vendover above Hyden, Leslie County
Contact Secretary
Mies Jessie Carson
Membership Secret•ries
Miss Katherine Prewltt Miss Elizabeth VanMeter
Secretary to Director
Miss Bland Morrow, B.A., \’Vendover, Leslie County ‘
if Medical Advisory Cornmlttcc
A `· Dr. Scott Breckinridge Dr. Josephine Hunt
Dr. Marmaduke Brown Dr. Sam Marks
Dr. \'Valler Bullock Dr. Francis Massle
Dr. John Scott

 l
l
 
~ NURSING STAFF .
. Miss Alice Logan, R.N., Supervisor I
Miss Ellen Halsall, R.N., Assistant "
Miss Gladys Peacock, R.N., Midwifery Supervisor
Miss Mary B. \Villetord, R.N., M.A., Education Supervisor  
Miss Edith Batten, ILN. Miss Edith ){Zltl.llI1.ll\S, R.N. ,
Miss Doris Beaumont, R.N. Miss Doris Park, lt.N. .
Miss Betty Lester, R.N. Miss Katllcrlne Stiles, R.N.  
Miss Annie MacKinnon, ILN. Miss Dorothy \Vllite, ILN. _
Miss Ellen Marsh, R.N. Miss Emily Williams, lt.N.
Miss Dorothy Buck, R.N,, M.A,, and Miss Rose McNz1ugllt, lt.N.
(on scholarships in England,) ?
TRUSTEES IN KENTUCKY (Continued) {
Dr. Irvin Abel, Louisville Mrs. Roy Helm, Hazard
Mrs. A. J. A. Alexander, Woodford County Mr. Alex Heyllurn, Louisville
Judge Lafon Allen, Louisville Mr. YValter Hoskins, Hyden
Mrs. WVm. Allen, Louisville Mrs. Cllurchlll Humphrey, Louisville
Mrs. Peter Lee Atherton. Louisville Mrs. George Hunt, Lexington
Mrs, Alex Barret, Louisville President YVllliam J. Hutchins, Berea
Mr. Richard Bean, Louisville Miss Flora. Keene, R. N., Louisville .
Mrs. Francis R. Beattie, Louisville Very Rev. Robt. K. Massle, D. D., Lexington
l\,[r_ M, Q_ Bggigy_ Hyder; Dr. David Morton, Louisville
Mrs, W. R. Belknap, Louisville Dr. Arthur T. McCormack. ' `
Judge Robert w. Bingham, Llmlsvllle Stats Bvafd of Hemi
Mr. William Black, Lgulsvllia Mr. W. A. McLean, Loulsvllls `
Mr. Percy Booth, Louisville Pres. Frank L. McVey, University of Ky.
Mrs. Samuel Boyle, Louisville Dr. Barnett Owen, Louisville ·
Hon. Clifton R, Brecklm-idgg_ Wgndgvef Miss Katherine N. Pettit, Pine Mountain
M’r. Desha Breckinridge, Lexington Dr. Alice N. Pickett, Loulsvllle
Mrs. Jolkn C. Breckinridge, New York Mrs, '\Viliiam Richards, Owingsville
Hon. H. M. Brock, Harlan Mr. E. O. Robinson, Cold Springs
Mr. Cabell B. Bullock, Lexington Mrs. Frederic M. Sackett, Washington, D. C.
Dr. J. S. Chambers, University oi Ky. Miss Sunle Satterwhlte, Louisville
Miss Harriet Cleek, R. N., Lexington Mrs. \Villiam Simlns, Woodford County'
Mr. Atllla Cox, Louisville Mr, W\'illiam Speed. Louisville
Mrs. John C. Doolan, Louisville Dr. J. A. Stucky, Lexington
_ Mr. Stuart Duncan, Louisville Mrs. Embry Sxvearingen, Louisville
Dr. J. A. Flexner, Louisville Mrs. Carey Tabb, Louisville
Miss Lucy Furman, Hlndman Mr. Bethel Veech, Louisville ,