The Training-School at the Glendale Sanitarium by Belle Wood-Comstock, M. D.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 5, 1911

The Training-School at the Glendale Sanitarium

By Belle Wood-Comstock, M. D.

In answer to the call for workers in our cities, we have organized in connection with our sanitarium work at Glendale the Sanitarium Society of Missionary Nurses, under the auspices of which we have established in the city of Los Angeles a visiting nurses' bureau. We believe this will be a great help in doing the work the Lord has been calling us to do, as well as in giving the members of our training-school the experience in active missionary work that is so essential in the training of missionary nurses.

Our first step was to send Mrs. Dugane, a mature Christian nurse of long experience in visiting nurses' work, to Los Angeles. She began her efforts in connection with the tent-meetings and the Bible Training School, and soon found so many doors open to her that her hands were more than full. Then Miss Evelyn Lothrop, one of our graduate nurses, went into the city to help her.

Nov. 6, 1910, we presented the matter to our nurses, and organized the Sanitarium Society of Missionary Nurses. The constitution, having been drawn up by the members of the faculty, was unanimously accepted by the workers present. The society was organized as a part of the training-school, the members of the faculty to act as executive committee, and each nurse in training to be an active member of the society, having an opportunity at some time during the course to spend a few weeks in the city, going from home to home, giving treatments, and teaching the people.

The experience gained by our nurses in this way will be of inestimable value to them. Already we can see many evidences of the Lord's blessing, both in the effect the work has had on the spiritual condition of our workers and in what we have actually been able to accomplish. Our nurses are enthusiastic and delighted with the plan, each one eagerly waiting her turn for an opportunity to spend a few weeks in the field.

We find that there is no limit to our opportunities for service, not only among the poor and needy, but also among the better classes, so that we hope to make this branch of our work self-supporting. Mrs. Dugane will remain in Los Angeles indefinitely, and as our field superintendent, will have general charge of our visiting nurses. We have at present four nurses in the city, but could use many more.

Our nurses and the members of the Bible Training School work together. As the nurse enters the home, she paves the way for the Bible worker, and we find that already our volunteer nurses' work is the means of leading many a family to the study of this last message. One whole family has accepted the truth since our work began. The following report shows in a general way what was done during the month of November:—

Homes visited ................................ 106 Treatments given (nominal fee received) ...... 37 Treatments given (entirely charity) .......... 39 Instructive calls made ........................ 56 Missionary talks given ........................ 40 Bible readings given by nurses ............... 10 Money received for treatments     given ................................ $22.30 Money received for nursing ................... 5.00 Money received for car fare .................. 8.05 Number of patients sent to the     sanitarium ............................... 3

This work makes our demand for nurses much greater, and we find that we must start another nurses' class at once. This we hope to do soon after January 1. We desire a large class, made up of consecrated young women, whose only thought is to help carry on the work the Lord has given us to do; and we are hoping that a goodly number of our young people will feel impressed to answer this call, and will come to us, and enter heart and soul into this work. Address the undersigned at Glendale Sanitarium, Glendale, Cal., for further particulars.

BELLE WOOD-COMSTOCK, M. D.