CREPE PAPER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 388, 23 June 1928, Page 20

CREPE PAPER

FOR NURSES’ UNIFORMS Crepe paper is the dress material now used by the visiting nurses of Milwaukee, United States, for their working uniforms. The manufacture of the gowns requires the services of a seamstress to supply the 70 visiting nurses of the Milwaukee Health Department with enough paper gowns. “Until a year and a-half ago, the nurses wore the usual cloth gowns at homes in which there was a communicable disease. It was long felt that those gowns, which were left to others to sterilise and were washed by laundries, were unsatisfactory. A careful inquiry revealed that there were no ready-made paper gowns which exactly suited the purpose. She bought a pattern for a nurse’s gown from a local department store, and a roll of crepe tissue paper. A sample gown was made. Tests proved that it would stand up under IS or 20 tryings-on. The nurses who tried the gowns out in their work found them far more satisfactory than the cloth gowns. The tests resulted in the employment of a seamstress. She uses a pattern which was cut with a jig-saw out of compo board. This heavy pattern allows her to cut with scissors a dozen layers of crepe tissue paper at once, which enables her to turn out 66 gowns a week—all cf them complete with tape to fasten. The gowns cost approximately 50 cents apiece. This will mean a slightly higher cost a year than for cloth gowns, but the paper gown is far more satisfactory for the visiting nurse, who must call at homes where there are contagious diseases, such as scarlet-fever, diphtheria, small-pox, infantile paralysis, etc. The nurses carry the paper gowns in sterile bags —the ordinary grocery store variety of bag. A different gown is used in every home having a communicable disease. The gown is saved for each successive visit to the home. After it has been worn it is folded up and placed in the bag. When the nurse no longer calls at that home it is burned.