Cherry Ames, Chief Nurse: Book 4

224 Pages·2005·1.73 MB·English

by  Helen Wells

CHERRY AMES, CHIEF NURSE
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CHERRY AMES NURSE STORIES
CHERRY AMES
CHIEF NURSE
By
HELEN WELLS
New York
Copyright © 1944 by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.
Copyright © renewed 2006 by Harriet Schulman Forman
Springer Publishing Company, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior permission of Springer Publishing Company, Inc.
Springer Publishing Company, Inc.
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New York, NY 10036-8002
Production Editor: Print Matters, Inc.
Cover design by Takeout Graphics, Inc.
Composition: Compset, Inc.
06 07 08 09 10/5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wells, Helen, 1910–
Cherry Ames, chief nurse / by Helen Wells.
p. cm. — (Cherry Ames nurse stories)
Summary: Now chief of her unit in the Army Nurse Corps, Cherry Ames
has the support of her Spencer Hospital friends as she strives to meet the
challenge of organizing an evacuation hospital on a Pacific island.
ISBN 0-97715-973-6 (pbk.)
[1. Nurses—Fiction. 2. Hospitals—Fiction. 3. World War,
1939-1945—Fiction. 4. United States. Army Nurse Corps—Fiction.
5. Islands of the Pacific—History—20th century—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.W4644Cd 2005
[Fic]—dc22
2005051740
Printed in the United States of America by Bang Printing
Contents
FOREWORD vii
I Jungle Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
II Leapfrog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19
III Island 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
IV Troubles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
60
V A Plane Arrives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
76
VI Bessie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
93
VII The Silent Flier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
117
VIII Monkey and Other Business . . . . . . . . . . .
129
IX Danger Ahead! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
147
X Under Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
174
XI Happy Landings! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
199
v
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Foreword
Helen Wells, the author of the Cherry Ames stories,
said, “I’ve always thought of nursing, and perhaps you
have, too, as just about the most exciting, important,
and rewarding, profession there is. Can you think of
any other skill that is always needed by everybody,
everywhere?”
I was and still am a fan of Cherry Ames. Her coura-
geous dedication to her patients; her exciting escapades;
her thirst for knowledge; her intelligent application of
her nursing skills; and the respect she achieved as a reg-
istered nurse (RN) all made it clear to me that I was
going to follow in her footsteps and become a nurse—
nothing else would do. Thousands of other young peo-
ple were motivated by Cherry Ames to become RNs
vii
viii FOREWORD
as well. Cherry Ames motivated young people on into
the 1970s, when the series ended. Readers who re-
member reading these books in the past will enjoy
rereading them now—whether or not they chose nurs-
ing as a career—and perhaps sharing them with others.
My career has been a rich and satisfying one, during
which I have delivered babies, saved lives, and cared for
people in hospitals and in their homes. I have worked
at the bedside and served as an administrator. I have
published journals, written articles, taught students,
consulted, and given expert testimony. Never once did
I regret my decision to enter nursing.
During the time that I was publishing a nursing
journal, I became acquainted with Robert Wells,
brother of Helen Wells. In the course of conversation
I learned that Ms. Wells had passed on and left the
Cherry Ames copyright to Mr. Wells. Because there is
a shortage of nurses here in the US today, I thought,
“Why not bring Cherry back to motivate a whole new
generation of young people? Why not ask Mr. Wells for
the copyright to Cherry Ames?” Mr. Wells agreed, and
the republished series is dedicated both to Helen
Wells, the original author, and to her brother Robert Wells
who transferred the rights to me. I am proud to ensure
the continuation of Cherry Ames into the twenty-first
century.
FOREWORD ix
The final dedication is to you, both new and old
readers of Cherry Ames: It is my dream that you enjoy
Cherry’s nursing skills as well as her escapades. I hope
that young readers will feel motivated to choose nurs-
ing as your life’s work. Remember, as Helen Wells
herself said: there’s no other skill that’s “alwaysneeded
by everybody, everywhere.”
Harriet Schulman Forman, RN, Ed.D.
Series Editor