European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 8, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 the stars and stripes february 1981 Community health nurse Lynnda Salacinski holds 3yearold Lesley Reed As she confers with Mother Nena a specialist about child nurse makes like old time circuit rider Grace Squires standing looks on while Denise Chandler counsels Robert Squires and Chandler Are Community health Story and photos by Gail Winfree staff writer Germany Lynnda Salacinski is a Small she wears army carries a Black bag and makes House Calls to military fam Ilies throughout the Rheinland Pfalz and Eifel and when she talks about her her Blue eyes Salacinski is one of four Community health nurses with the army regional medical centers preventive Medicine activity according to the 34yearold fort Wal ton her Job is similar to a civilian Public health the Only she is that we work with military army Community health nursing started at fort in february 48 years after the army nurse corps was its birth stemmed from the belief that a Soldier concerned with his family welfare cant be completely committed to the army it was also Felt that Community health nursing could Deal with the problem of patient overload in the emergency Many anxious Young parents were bring ing their infants to the emergency room for routine conditions which the parents did not realize were Community health nursing provided a Short term goal of conserving the Hospital staff for real emergency cases and a Long term objective of giving soldiers and their dependents family entered although we spend most of our time in the Home with were also involved in the control of communicable our biggest areas Here Are hepatitis and venereal we usually work with other especially the German health when dealing with these Community health nursing is still based on those Early said and our major role is making Home which keeps us Busy most of the Salacinski work Here involves Little Handson nursing in the a Community health nurse spends an average of five hours a Day on the according to to help relieve the work Load created by these the Community health nurses office uses red Cross volunteers who Are registered we have 12 Volunteer rns and i dont know what we would do without their the major but not of our Home visits Deal with cases in the maternal and child health predominantly families with these Are usually infants or mothers we feel have a High risk of devel Oping for a Mother who had medical problems during preg Nancy or a baby with a Low birth these patients Are referred to us by nurses on the Ward or doctors who treated the patient and feel some Type of Home supervision is All of our cases come from either from the Hospi social service agencies in the Community or individuals who feel they need some kind of and we often refer cases to other agencies its a Giveand take the Community health nurse also acts As a health educator in the she works with other agencies in conduct ing classes and running Community health we teach in the in classrooms and in clinical settings in formal and informal were we help family members to learn about their own health and the growth and development of their when we go into the we do a certain amount of role we pick up and cuddle the we show the new Mother How to feed and care for her this Way we establish rap port with the Mother and it gives us a Good feeling when we see a family become inde pendent in dealing with the Salacinski has been a Community health nurse for More than 11 she says she likes the army and she likes her a Community health nurse is basically a medical Public relations she we leave the Hospital and go into a Community or Home and when we do we take a Little bit of the Hospital out with