Within the past eighteen months, Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, D.C., has been entirely reorganized. In the fall of 1894 the reorganization began by instituting a training school for nurses. A competent superintendent was had, and reorganization, reform and improvement went hand in hand until the present time. Now, there is a training school of forty nurses, all colored, selected from hundreds of applicants and from every State in the Union. The work of the training school is commended by everyone who takes the trouble to study it. Marked change in every department of the institution was manifested by the advent of these intelligent women, who brought new life and a new future to the hospital. Instead of remaining a political institution, it was converted, at once, into a scientific institution for the education and upbuilding of the more progressive members who have selected this as their life-work. You cannot overestimate the good that will come from the education of the young men and women in this institution.
In connection with other features, a corps of internes has been added. These are young graduates of medical colleges who are giving a service of twelve months of practical work in the several departments of the hospital. At the expiration of this service, they receive certificates which commend them at once to the people in the communities in which they are to reside.
In keeping with other lines of progress, an ambulance, with all the modern improvements, has been added to the service within the last year. This ambulance is complete in all its appointments, with the quickest emergency service to any part of the city. This feature of hospital work is one that has been neglected by colored people in this country, and one which they are particularly adapted to succeed in.
It is a marvel to the observer of human affairs that this institution has existed, for over twenty years, receiving an annual appropriation of over fifty thousand dollars, without an ambulance in its service, in a city like Washington, where a great many of the people are poor and depend upon charity in cases of sickness and distress. This ambulance makes as many as sixty or seventy-five emergency calls per month, furnishing a rich field of surgical study to the internes and nurses in the institution.