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The Washington Sanitarium City Dispensary

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 16, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 20.

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The Washington Sanitarium City Dispensary

By L. A. H.

The opening of the Washington Sanitarium City Dispensary, Wednesday, May 1, marked an important move in the development of the work of the Washington Sanitarium and the Foreign Mission Seminary, providing a factor that goes far toward making the training feature of these two institutions complete. The cooperation of the District of Columbia Conference and of the Washington Sanitarium-Seminary Board, with help from our various churches in Washington, has made possible the beginning of an enterprise the need of which has been strongly felt for some time.
While a city dispensary is not a new thing among us, the particular one of which we now speak is a new feature in our work. Its work includes much that we used to do, but its scope is a broader one than that of anything of this kind we have as yet undertaken.
A two-story building has been rented at 427 Four and One-Half St., S. W., and furnished and prepared for dispensary work. For some time preceding the opening of the institution, three women nurses had been at work in the district. Their observation and experience more than bore out the selection of that location as the most needy portion of the city, and as offering a field for the fullest activities of the dispensary.
The District of Columbia Conference meets the rent of the building and the salary of the manager. The Washington Sanitarium provides the services of Drs. H. N. Sisco and Margaret Evans, each of whom has dispensary hours three days in the week. The Sanitarium also provides transportation for the workers to and from the car-line station. The Seminary supplies nurses, and will bear a portion of the operating expenses.
The managing board consists of Elder J. L. McElhany, president of the District of Columbia Conference, Prof. M. E. Kern, Drs. H. N. Sisco and Margaret Evans, and Brother V. E. Peugh, manager of the dispensary.
Sabbath services have been held in several of our Washington and Takoma Park churches in behalf of the dispensary proposition. Opportunity has been given to the members to assist by donations of money and furnishings. So far, the response has been good. Some money and household goods have been contributed. Not all the money needed has been received, nor all necessary equipment.
A portion of the talk by Professor Kern at one of the Sabbath meetings is here given as presenting the need of this new enterprise:—
“Health and temperance should be a part of our educational system, a part of the preparation of missionaries and workers to give this complete gospel. First of all, we should have this knowledge for our own sakes, and then we should have it for the sake of others; for we have been instructed that ‘in His service healing and teaching are to be linked together. To-day they are not to be separated. The nurses who are trained in our institutions are to be fitted to go out as medical missionary evangelists, uniting the ministry of the word with that of physical healing.’ I think this is especially true of the education of missionaries who are going to heathen lands. It is true of all, but especially true of them. I read:—
“Whether in foreign missions or in the home field, all missionaries, both men and women, will gain much more ready access to the people, and will find their usefulness greatly increased, if they are able to minister to the sick. Women who go as missionaries to heathen lands may thus find opportunity for giving the gospel to the women of these lands, when every other door of access is closed. All gospel workers should know how to give the simple treatments that do so much to relieve pain and remove disease.’—‘Ministry of Healing,’ pages 145, 146.
“The great World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh, in 1910, recognized the need of well-qualified medical workers in passing the following resolution:— “1. That there is still a great need for qualified nurses in the foreign missionary field. “2. That an adequate training for such nurses is essential. “3. That the training should be (1) general—three years in a properly equipped hospital or infirmary, with a resident medical officer; (2) special. After obtaining their certificate, such nurses should, if possible, receive further training in such subjects as midwifery, dispensing, elementary hygiene, cooking, district work in the slums of a city, and ophthalmic and fever nursing.’
“That is a plan we are endeavoring to work to at the Foreign Mission Seminary. We have made special efforts along this line the past year. We have a postgraduate nurses’ course, and we are endeavoring to do more for those who are going out as missionaries, so that they may be prepared, when separated from any medical help, to take care of themselves and to help take care of the people. That gives us an open door in all fields, and women may work where they could not otherwise. In our postgraduate course we need something more than our training-schools and hospitals can give.
“I will read some statements from ‘Special Testimonies,’ Series B, No. 8, referring to the needs we are considering:—
“Henceforth medical missionary work is to be carried forward with an earnestness with which it has never yet been done. This work is the door through which the truth is to find entrance to the large cities.’
“It has seemed strange to me that in past years our work was not better represented at Washington. For many years I have been anxious to see a sanitarium established in this place. A medical institution in Washington will greatly help in opening the way for the truth to be presented. God has counseled us that if the sanitarium work shall be carried forward in the right manner, it will be a means of doing great good.
“In Washington, the sanitarium work should make rapid advancement. In our Washington work, wise, competent physicians, efficient managers, and nurses with the very best qualifications, will be needed. Earnest, devoted young people also will be needed to enter the work as nurses. These young men and women will increase in capability as they use conscientiously the knowledge they gain, and they will become better and better qualified to be the Lord’s helping hand.’
“The sanitarium at Takoma Park is to be a source of strength to the school already established. The school and the sanitarium may be a help one to the other.’
“The Lord calls upon us to awake to a realization of the opportunities presented before us to let our light shine in the city of Washington, by establishing there memorials that will hasten forward the proclamation of the third angel’s message to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.’
The interest, prayers, and assistance of our people elsewhere are solicited in behalf of this enterprise, the outcome of which may mean much to the preparation of our missionaries, as well as for the help of those directly reached.
L. A. H.