In Case You Are Interested One of the proudest women of a proud profession is Mrs Clyde Dickson registered nurse who is a graduate of the second class of Watts Hospital School of Nursing and the first public health nurse In Durham County This month has been set aside as nurse recruitment month throughout the nation and young women are being urged to become members of the nursing profession A chat with Mrs Dickson would convince any young woman that nursing is an opportunity and a way to a full life At the age of 77 Mrs Dickson is now living in Chapel Hill with her two daughters She isn't retired she is now nursing her Dowers and her favorite "patient1 is a pink lotus When I called this week she was making bread and butter pickles that set up a grand perfume in the kitchen where we chatted Mrs Dickson is a pioneer in her field She had the courage to follow her conviction that nursing was not a menial job but was on a par with the profession of medicine Left a widow with two children she had begun to study stenography with R L Lindsay and had been assured a job as a librarian In - secret though she had applied to enter Watts Hospital School of Nursing because even as a child she had a desire to fol low in the footsteps of Florence Nightengale- When she was accepted by Watts Hospital her family 'thought she had disgraced them but when she saved the life of her brother's wife through prompt emergency action and nursed her parents through influenza they began to understand the true nature of her profession When she entered Watts training class in 1895 there were three undergraduate nurses: Mrs Sol Mason Miss Annie Furgeson and Miss Lily Cowan who is now Mrs D CL Mitchell There was one night nurse thtee day nurses and one surgical tiuisc one orderly one cook and one mafd The nurses were on 12 hours duty -and attended classes In addition There were no internes ini'tbwn doctors were called on for service People were somewhat afraid of this new institution that Mr George Watts had just given the city but Mrs Dickson saw as the years went by how the hospital came to be accepted and how it grew Into one of the outstanding hospitals in the South She found each of her patients were like another book to be opened and read In all of her years of nursing there was only one person who did not appreciate all that she did for her and that was a woman who had been shot by her lover and who had no desire to live In the first days patients were brought from the highways and from the hedges Mrs Dickson remembers that her first pa tient after she received her cap and apron was a woman who when she saw Mrs Dickson with her soap and water and basin asked "What are you going to do?" "OH replied Mrs Dickson Tm going to give you a bath" "All over?" "Yes all over" " On my back too?" "Yes on your back too" "Lawd honey" -exclaimed the patient "that hasn’t had a drop on it in 20 years!" Mrs Dickson was graduated 1899 wearing the - same kind -uniform that is displayed in EDis Stone’s window this week — replete with ruffles and petticoats After a period of nursing during which time she was temporarily head nurse at Watts she became the first public health nurse In Durham For two years she alone served all of Durham’s residents both white and colored in city and in the county There were no paved streets and within the city she went everywhere on foot through the mud or by street ear The county policemen escorted her about the county in his buggy She visited the homes of the sick bathed the patients and looked after the family needs by calling on Sunday School classes to help with the problems of the very poor She did the fumigating the quarantining gave the "shots" and visited the schools with Dh Arch Cheatham the health officer and did whatever health education there was to be done in the county The county attorney knowing the homes she would have to visit sent her a tiny pearl handled pistol to carry In her bag She returned it with her thanks because she felt that her profession was her only needed protection and it was In five years no matter where she wedt she was never one time troubled It was hard and she saw much agony poverty and even filth and yet there were more than enough compensations in the souls that were helped Happy Mrs Dickson who Is living life to the fullest is good proof that doing for ethers builds for happy years The pioneer job in nursing is done but there are many exciting opportunities for women in the amazing modem fields of nursing Some of these win be pictured in the uniforms shown in the Duke School of Nursing windows in Robbins Shop next week North Carolina needs 1000 nurse recruits this fall won’t you be one of them? GRACE OHLSON Young Reunion Sunday July 27 Descendants and relatives of Martha Peacock Young and James X Young will hold a family reunion on Sunday July 27 in Pullen Park Raleigh A picnic lunch will be served at 1 o’clock wife for also New the week Go here manager to & of at Richmond Mrs Aug Dorothy for short eon York Miss apartment are with on home visit McKinley the and for of
