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Nurses: On the Go

What do we see when we look closely?

Examine this advertisement for an air ambulance service. Experiments using aircraft as ambulances begin in World War I. Civilian use begins in remote communities served by bush planes such as the Australian outback (1920s) with emergency services in the US developing from the 1960s.
Roll over different areas of the postcard to discover answers to the questions below.

    • Q1Can you identify medical equipment carried by the air ambulance?
    • A1By 1979 air ambulances carry respirators, oxygen, resuscitators, suction and intravenous drug packs plus a radio for communication with medical personnel on the ground.
    • Q2Can you spot a flight nurse?
    • A2Trained in critical care, flight nurses need to work autonomously and have to make difficult decisions that can affect the lives of extremely ill patients in their care.
    • Q3Can you find an ancient Greek symbol of health and medicine?
    • A3This twin-engine Piper Aztec bears the sign of the caduceus, emblem of the messenger god Hermes, frequently associated with non-combatant medical services.
A White female nurse in white squats next to a White patient on a stretcher next to an airplane.
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An advertisement for air ambulance service that highlights specially designed planes and trained air medical nurses, 1980s

    • Q1Can you identify medical equipment carried by the air ambulance?
    • A1By 1979 air ambulances carry respirators, oxygen, resuscitators, suction and intravenous drug packs plus a radio for communication with medical personnel on the ground.
    • Q2Can you spot a flight nurse?
    • A2Trained in critical care, flight nurses need to work autonomously and have to make difficult decisions that can affect the lives of extremely ill patients in their care.
    • Q3Can you find an ancient Greek symbol of health and medicine?
    • A3This twin-engine Piper Aztec bears the sign of the caduceus, emblem of the messenger god Hermes, frequently associated with non-combatant medical services.
  • 1Can you identify medical equipment carried by the air ambulance?
  • 2Can you spot a flight nurse?
  • 3Can you find an ancient Greek symbol of health and medicine?

Choose another postcard from Nurses: On the Go

  • A White female nurse sitting on top of a donkey and smiling at the viewer.
  • Two White female nurses in a motorcycle with sidecar. Both wear white uniforms under their cloaks.
  • Two White female nurses and a male orderly, tend to a soldier, two orderlies arrive in ambulance.
  • White female nurse in blue, standing holding a bike, looking at viewer.
  • A White female with Red Cross armband riding a horse and carrying a satchel bag over her shoulder.
  • Eleven female Japanese nurses and two Japanese soldiers inside a Red Cross truck.
  • An ambulance drives next to barbed wire, in the background is a woman wrapped in a cloak.
  • Florence Nightingale's ambulance carriage, parked outside of a stone church.
  • A White female nurse in dark military overcoat standing next to an automobile, looking at the viewer.