By Helen Wells
Illustrated by ???
Grosset & Dunlap, 1959
If any girl thinks being a nurse means chiefly wearing a fetching cap and uniform, and adventuring among romantic people, she is mistaken. (Story books notwithstanding!)
--From Cherry Ames' Book of First Aid and Home Nursing, pp. 240-41
Cherry offers advice on providing first aid in emergencies, helping out in a sickroom, baby-sitting, and planning for a nursing career.
A Letter from Cherry Ames
Cherry explains that she has written this book for young girls interested in nursing, but "You need not be a full-fledged nurse to contribute to the health and happiness of your family" (p. 1). She adds that "whether you eventually become a nurse or not, you are always needed to play an important part in the care of others. You will use your feminine skills not only to nurse the sick, but to also meet everyday needs and emergencies" (p. 3).
Chapter 1: Emergency!
Cherry explains what you should do when an accident occurs, emphasizing the importance of calling a doctor promptly and keeping calm. She describes the car accident that occurred when she was a boarding school nurse and recalls her brother Charlie's tree-climbing accident when he was ten.
Want to learn about other little-known events of Cherry's shadowy childhood? Click here to read more!
Chapter 2: How to Make a First-Aid Kit
Cherry suggests that every home have a handy first aid kit and lists the items that belong in it, as well as the essential items for a smaller "travel" kit.
Chapter 3: Bandages and Dressings
Cherry explains that bandages and dressings must be kept sterile and describes how to apply a bandage and tie a square knot.
Chapter 4: The Art of Bandaging
Cherry describes how to make and use a variety of bandages, including a triangular bandage for hand or foot; a cravat bandage for head, elbow or knee, palm, and ankle; roller bandage for finger or toe; and sling for arm. She recalls incidents when she used these bandage techniques as a camp nurse and a flight nurse.
Chapter 5: Never Delay First Aid
Cherry emphasizes the importance of prompt treatment; she explains what to do for cuts, puncture wounds, and scratches; how to staunch bleeding; how to watch for infection; what to do for a nosebleed; and how to discard soiled dressings.
Chapter 6: Bruises, Burns and Blisters
Cherry tells how to treat a bruise; discusses different types of burns, including sunburn and chemical burns, and how to treat them; and explains what to do for blisters not caused by burns. She reminisces about Winky, her first serious burn case when she was a student nurse.
Chapter 7: Coping with the World Outdoors
Cherry offers advice on outdoor hazards, including poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac; bites from insects, dogs, and snakes; puncture wounds from stepping on rusty nails and the like; and splinters.
Chapter 8: Shock and Unconsciousness
Cherry explains what shock is, how to recognize it, and what to do for a patient in shock. She discusses many reasons for loss of consciousness, including fainting, electric shock, heart attack, and epileptic seizures. She recalls a heart patient she had when she was a department store nurse.
Chapter 9: Weather and Water Safety
Cherry discusses first aid for heat exhaustion and sunstroke, frostbite and exposure to cold; and drowning, including how to give artificial respiration. She tells about an incident when her friend Bertha Larsen suffered from heat exhaustion.
Chapter 10: Stomach Aches and Poisons
Cherry talks about what to do for abdominal pain and for various types of poisoning. She discusses the symptoms of poisoning, what kind of emergency care to give, and how to avoid food poisoning. She recalls that her pal Midge Fortune once became ill from eating spoiled food, and that Gwen Jones once cared for a patient who died after eating poisonous mushrooms.
The fact that Gwen's patient died is quite startling; none of Cherry's patients ever die while under her care.
Chapter 11: More First-Aid Know-How
Cherry offers advice for a variety of common ailments and mishaps, including toothache; eye problems such as particles in the eye, sties, and black eyes; earaches; hiccups; cramping in feet and legs; choking; and inhaling gas.
Chapter 12: Safety First at Home
Cherry emphasizes accident prevention, especially in the home. She mentions many common home hazards and suggests checking for hazards and eliminating them. Cherry also discusses fire safety, gas leaks, precautions to avoid electric shock and accidental poisoning, and what to do when lightning strikes.
Chapter 13: Outdoor Safety
Cherry discusses safety on the streets; in bicycling, swimming, boating, ice skating, and hiking and camping; and on the farm. She recalls saving Wade Cooper from drowning when their canoe overturned (Veterans' Nurse), and suggests learning to swim. She emphasizes the importance of good judgment at all times.
Chapter 14: What Is a Home Nurse?
Cherry explains how best to help Mom (the family's primary caregiver, Cherry explains) when a family member is ill, and recounts her experience as a private duty nurse for Jessie Tucker, when young children were a big help to her. She emphasizes the importance of personal and household hygiene, too.
Chapter 15: Your Duties as a Home Nurse
Cherry says that patients need more than the medicines and treatments prescribed by the doctor: They need to be kept comfortable and well-tended. Cherry explains how to make a bed, how to improvise a back rest, how to prevent bedsores, and how to make a bed table. She talks about what is involved in a daily nursing routine and how to plan a schedule of care.
Chapter 16: Sickroom Techniques
Cherry explains how to use and read a thermometer, how to take a patient's pulse and respiration, how to keep a medical record for the doctor, how to give medicine, how to fill a hot-water bag, how to prepare an ice bag, and how to prepare hot and cold moist compresses.
Chapter 17: Your Patient's Comfort
Cherry emphasizes the importance of cleanliness to avoid spreading germs from the sickroom. She tells how to make a wastepaper bag from newspaper for the sickroom. Cherry discusses personal care for the patient, including assisting in giving a bed bath, giving a back rub, feeding the patient, and preparing the patient for the night.
Chapter 18: Tips for a Cheerful Sickroom
Cherry discusses how a cheerful attitude helps a patient. She says that attractive meals, pleasant surroundings, little diversions, and visitors all contribute to a patient's well-being. "It isn't enough for you to be skilled in nursing techniques. It's important for you to care for your patient in the right spirit. Be generous, willing, cheerful" (p. 221).
Chapter 19: Baby Sitting
Cherry talks about baby-sitting, including caring for a sick child. She offers advice about games to play with children, how to get a child to go to bed, how to prepare meals for children, and do's and don'ts for baby-sitters. She also discusses how to find baby-sitting jobs and advises being businesslike and professional.
Chapter 20: Your Future in Nursing
Cherry suggests that girls interested in nursing might become hospital volunteers after school or during summer vacations, and explains what is involved. Cherry advises girls who think they want a nursing career to consult school guidance counselors and investigate various nursing schools. She talks about the difference between registered nurses and practical nurses, nursing schools, nurse's caps, and various fields of nursing.
Cherry Ames' Book of First Aid and Home Nursing
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