Clara Maass: American Nurse Trivia Quiz

Answer: East Orange, New Jersey

She was born Clara Louise Maass, June 28, 1876 in East Orange, New Jersey, the eldest of ten children born to Hedwig and Robert Maass, German immigrants.

Answer: Newark German Hospital

When Clara was 17, she entered the Christina Trefz Training school at Newark German Hospital, only the fourth such nursing school at the time in New Jersey. She graduated in 1895, one of three students graduating that year after two years of arduous training and classes in German. At age 21 she was named head nurse and supplemented her income with private duty nursing.
As German doctors were the first to accept Lister's theories, this hospital was the first in the Newark area to use antiseptic measures at all times.

Answer: False

She worked as a contract nurse for the army during the Spanish American war and also in the Philippines, Georgia, Florida and with the Las Animas Hospital in Cuba. She was considered to be a very competant and hard working person.

Answer: Mosquito bite

The culprit is, more specifically, the Aedes Aegypti mosquito. This is not a mosquito indigenous to all regions.

Answer: Window screens and eliminating mosquito breeding areas

The Yellow Fever Commission headed by Major Walter Reed was responsible for these studies, which took place in Camp Lazear, near Havana, Cuba. Their findings were pulished in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" on February 16, 1901 and are to this day considered accurate.

Answer: True

After many years of research the virus was identified and in 1937 a safe vaccine was grown in the eggs of chickens and provided a means to control yellow fever.

Answer: False

That is a symptom of dengue which is also carried by mosquitos, which she contracted in the Phillipines. Yellow fever is characterized by black emesis due to ruptured blood vessels in the stomach which is called "el vomito negro" by the Spanish.

Answer: true

She volunteered for Gorgas and Guiteras mosquito experiments in Havana, Cuba at the Las Animas Hospital. She was bitten by "loaded" mosquitoes a number of times between March and August of 1901 and died on August 24 of that year at the age of 25. Her death and the death of two others created shock waves that ended human experimentation. She was one of 19 volunteers and the only woman and the only American. Her mother received $100.

At the time she was bitten, it was known that mosquitoes were the culprit but it was hoped that it could be proved that developing mild cases would provide immunity, enabling persons working in high risk areas to become immune.

The researchers on the Yellow Fever Commission were pioneers in the use of "informed consent" in medical research. However, the information available to them and to Clara Maas was erroneous.

There is a mystery surrounding Clara Maass: at the time of her death she was engaged to be married to a wealthy American businessman, whose identity remains unknown.

Answer: All of these

She has been honored by both Cuba and the United Stated with postage stamps and the original German Hospital in Newark is now the Clara Maass Medical Center, promoting her spirit of caring and adventure and contains a small museum with some of her personal effects. This was the first hospital to be named for a nurse. And she was inducted into the ANA nursing Hall of Fame in 1976.
Cuba printed a postage stamp on the 50th year of her death and the US printed one on the 100th anniversary of her birth in 1976.

Answer: False

Some of her letters have been preserved. She was a Lutheran and a wonderful quote attributed to her: "We nurse people, not diseases. A good nurse not only cares for people but also cares about them. Nursing is an art. The health of the soul and the health of the body are equally important, both for you and for your patient. We must not forget either the mighty impetus the Christian church gave to nursing, following the example of Christ, who healed".