International Nurses Day

May 12, 2020

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has declared the theme for International Nurses Day 2020, which is celebrated on May 12, “Nursing the World to Health.” It’s a fitting theme, as nurses and doctors are on the frontlines working tirelessly to care for patients with coronavirus. To help honor the important service nurses provide, the Government Publishing Office offers the following titles about the history of nursing.

Realizing the Future of Nursing: VA Nurses Tell Their Story

This series of stories and experiences told directly by Veterans Affairs (VA) nurses, physicians, healthcare staff, and community partners offers personal insights into the medical community serving America’s Veterans. The publication includes moving narratives about how the VA system has improved the quality and safety of Veteran care. The stories are inspiring and illuminating to read. These personal experiences and perspectives create a picture of the individual commitment and dedication, the extreme challenges, and exceptional successes of VA healthcare workers. They are especially comforting to anyone who has served in the VA healthcare system.

Highlights in the History of the Army Nurse Corps

Service is at the heart of these personal stories of nurses−stories of valor and dedication. This resource provides a record of the major events in the proud history of the Army Nurse Corps. Giving recognition to those who serve is heartening to anyone with friends or family members in the Army Nurse Corps. It took new legislation and other significant events to ensure meaningful changes in the Corps. These changes have ensured that the Corps can provide high quality nursing care to soldiers, their families, and retired military and their dependents in times of peace and war. Army nurses are key medical contributors during global health crises such as the COVID–19 pandemic happening now.

Your Guide to Choosing a Nursing Home or Other Long-Term Services & Support       

Nursing homes have been hard hit by COVID–19. This booklet can help a decision-maker choose a nursing home and better understand other types of elder care. It offers valuable information about how certain types of insurance can help make these critical choices a bit easier. Certainly, the role of Medicare and Medicaid must be considered in making nursing home care or alternative types of care decisions.

The team at the Government Publishing Office gives thanks to all nurses, nurse’s aides, and those preparing to dedicate their lives to the medical profession.

The GPO Online Bookstore – Easy Access to Federal Publications

HOW DO I OBTAIN THESE RESOURCES?

Sign up to receive promotional bulletin emails from the US Government Online Bookstore.

Shop Online Anytime: You can buy a vast majority of eBooks or print publications —with FREE Standard Shipping worldwide— from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at https://bookstore.gpo.gov.

Visit our Retail Store: To buy or order a copy of any print editions from this collection at GPO’s retail bookstore at 710 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC 20401, open Monday–Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Federal holidays, Call (202) 512-0132 for information or to arrange in-store pick-up(s).

Order by Phone or Email: Call our Customer Contact Center Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4:30 pm Eastern (except US Federal holidays). From US and Canada, call toll-free 1.866.512.1800. DC or International customers call +1.202.512.1800.  Email orders to ContactCenter@gpo.gov

Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

Find more than a million official Federal Government publications from all three branches at www.govinfo.gov.

About the author: Blogger contributor Ed Kessler is a Promotions Specialist in GPO’s Publication and Information Sales program office.

 

Leave a Comment » | Center of Military History, Department of Health & Human Services, Department of Veterans Affairs, health, Health care | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Trudy Hawkins

U.S. Army Nurse Corps: “Courage to Care”

October 12, 2016

Military and women’s history intersect in many ways. For more than two centuries, thousands of qualified women have served America in the Army Nurse Corps in particular. Each military branch has their own nursing corps. GPO makes available U.S. Army Center of Military History’s “Highlights in the History of the Army Nurses Corps.”

Poster encouraging women to join the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War II. Interested citizens could apply at Red Cross recruiting stations.This booklet chronicles the contributions of women nurses throughout the development of the Army Nurse Corps. Their story begins during the American Revolution when General George Washington asked Congress for nurses “to attend the sick.” In the decades that followed, whenever the military establishment expanded or contracted, medical services followed suit.

The Spanish-American War was a turning point for military nurses. Although not commissioned as a regular part of the Army, more than 1,500 female civilian nurses volunteered to care for the wounded. Shortly thereafter, in 1901, the female Nurse Corps became permanent under the Army Reorganization Act.

Poster encouraging women to join the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War II. Interested citizens could apply at Red Cross recruiting stations.

Poster encouraging women to join the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War II. Interested citizens could apply at Red Cross recruiting stations.

If there ever was a time when the Army Nurse Corps was an indispensable part of the American military establishment, it was during WWII. Several pages of the book are devoted to this period. At one point the number of active duty nurses swelled to 57,000. Sixty-six were captured and imprisoned by the Japanese in the Philippines. Many landed in North Africa on the day of 1942 invasion. Others arrived just days after the 1944 Normandy beach landing. Tragically, by the war’s end, 215 Army nurses died while serving.

Be it on base battlefield hospitals in WWII France, in MASH units on the front lines of the Korean War, or among a 6,000 strong crew during Vietnam, Army nurses helped to save tens of thousands of lives. Numbers may have waned in peacetime but standards in training and care never did.

U.S. Army Nurse 1st Lt. Arnelle Lewis takes a Guatemalan boy's temperature during a medical readiness training exercise in Santa Cruz Balanya, Guatemala, on March 10, 2007. Lewis is a registered nurse attached to the U.S. Virgin Islands Army National Guard.

U.S. Army Nurse 1st Lt. Arnelle Lewis takes a Guatemalan boy’s temperature during a medical readiness training exercise in Santa Cruz Balanya, Guatemala, on March 10, 2007. Lewis is a registered nurse attached to the U.S. Virgin Islands Army National Guard.

Today, the Army Nurse Corps is made up entirely of registered nurses. Army nurses are deployed all over the world in support of humanitarian and anti-terrorism missions. According to the Corps’ official creed, members continue to have the “courage to care, courage to connect, and courage to change.”

HOW DO I OBTAIN THIS PUBLICATION?

Shop Online Anytime: You can buy eBooks or print publications —with FREE Standard Shipping worldwide— from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at http://bookstore.gpo.gov.

Shop our Retail Store: Buy a copy of any print editions from this collection at GPO’s retail bookstore at 710 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC 20401, open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Federal holidays, Call (202) 512-0132 for information or to arrange in-store pick-up.

Order by Phone: Call our Customer Contact Center Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5:30 pm Eastern (except US Federal holidays). From US and Canada, call toll-free 1.866.512.1800. DC or International customers call +1.202.512.1800.

Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

About the author: Blogger contributor Chelsea Milko is a Public Relations Specialist in GPO’s Public Relations Office.

Leave a Comment » | Center of Military History, Department of Defense, Military History, U.S. Army | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Trudy Hawkins

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