FRONTIER NURSES

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 March 1935, Page 5

FRONTIER NURSES

IN KENTUCKY MOUNTAINS, A noble life and an exciting one of the nurses in the Frontier Nursing Service, which is a. mounted nursing service operating in the isolated region of the Appalachian Mountains. Kentucky, was described by Miss Marion F. Benest, who arrived in Sydney recently, states the “Sydney Morning Herald.”

Miss Benest spent two years in the Kentucky Mountains attached to this service. Her duties were chiefly veterinary work and riding instruction. although she did, too, plan out small gardens for the nursing centres which had comparatively recently been established at a distance of 12 miles apart, with two nurses at each centre. Nurses had both obstetric and general training, and the organisation, which was entirely philanthropic, and supported by voluntary funds, had brought great relief to mothers who previously had been shut off from other civilisation in the almost impenetrable mountain country. The centres ware connected by a single line telephone to the administrative headquarters at Wendover, which meant that assistance could be sent out to outlying parts with little delay.

Medical supplies were packed in saddle bags tied on to special horses that travelled at a “running walk” gait so as not to disturb dressings and drugs. Roads were very rough and very dangerous, and frequently nurses had to swim the horses across rivers to get to their cases. Usually they were escorted by the father from the cabin who had come for assistance, but there were times when they had to travel quite alone. Bcecausa the Kentucky Mountains were of such intense isolation, the British settlers who had made their homes there had not progressed with civilisation, and in consequence their it scendants had retained their customs, manners, and narrow religious observances. They even spoke with the quaint speech of earlier days. Most particularly had the children and women suffered, for no doctors could make their way into th - * country and there were no schools for the children. But now new roads, made at tremendous expense, had done something to modify the inaccessibility of the district, and a few - schools had bsen established: also the advent of the mounted nurses had done much to Improve public health.