A significant change in the use and availability of nurse-midwives occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. The shift away from midwife-assisted home births to hospital births was apparent during this time.
Guam Pattera: Changing Birth Practices (1950-1960) Read Post »
On March 15, 1946, in an attempt to further improve medical care for the rapidly expanding island population, the Navy established a School of Medical Practitioners which offered a four-year course in general medicine leading to eligibility for certification as a Medical Practitioner.
Medical and Dental Practitioners Read Post »
When the US military recaptured Guam from Japanese forces in July to August 1944, temporary field hospitals were established in secured areas of the Hågat and Anigua beachheads. Both civilian and military wards were later moved to a complex of metal buildings in the village of Tamuning.
At the end of World War II, in August 1945, a three-year nursing program was re-established in Guam by the US Navy. It was called the US Naval Hospital School for Native Nurses and then renamed the US Naval Hospital School of Nursing in 1946.
Nursing Schools: 1945-1952 Read Post »
No official records of health activities during the Japanese occupation are known to have survived World War II. Although health services were offered free-of-charge to civilians who came to the hospital, many were reluctant to do so except in dire emergency.
Health Services During WWII Read Post »
The first US Naval Hospital in Guam was established in Hagåtña in August 1899 by Surgeon Philip Leach. Since many Chamorros at the time consulted with suruhånu/suruhånas (traditional healers) for medical concerns, the hospital was the only source of modern western medicine on the island.
US Naval Hospital 1899-1941 Read Post »
Because of a shortage of personnel Navy Medical Officers began teaching local women to be health care workers. The first class offered, in 1901, was in midwifery (local women delivered 325 babies that year) beginning a long tradition of the staff of the Naval Hospital teaching local people to be health care providers using Western medical practices.
From 1899 to 1941 US Marines given the title “Insular Patrolman” were selected to live in Guam’s villages and maintain order. Among their many duties was to enforce the island’s sanitary and public health regulations as dictated by the US Navy administration.
Leprosy – Insular Patrol Read Post »
In the first decade of the 20th century, the US Navy embarked on a policy of forcibly segregating Chamorros suspected of having Hansen’s disease (leprosy) from the rest of Guam’s population, and sending them to live in leper colonies such as the one established at Ypao, Tumon or as far away as on the island of Culion in the Philippines.
Leprosy – Local Reaction Read Post »
Spanish built first leprosarium. As early as the 1600s, Western explorers documented seeing Chamorros of the Mariana Islands afflicted with apparent Hansen’s disease, or leprosy. Still, it wasn’t until hundreds of years later that a government-sanctioned policy of seclusion and confinement of Hansen’s patients gained a foothold in Guam.
Leprosy – Hospitals and Colonies Read Post »
