Gentle speech is also a desideratum. The nurse-maid should have a sufficiently developed mind to follow out and remember general directions, whether given by the physician or mother, and to do routine work without constant supervision. A certain amount of experience is a good thing, and on this account it is a recommendation for a woman to have had a partial hospital training, to have nursed children before, or to have been a mother. On the other hand, one must beware of the self-opinionated maid, who, having cared for several children, thinks she knows everything, and will be controlled by neither professional nor maternal directions. Such women are as ignorant and inefficient as they are common.
Cleanliness is essential in a nurse.
A slovenly maid will keep neither her children nor their nurseries clean. Therefore insist upon the nurse not only washing her face and hands as occasion demands, but upon her bathing her whole body two or three times a week, and upon her wearing fresh, well-aired clothing. So far as habits are concerned, absolute temperance and early rising are the most desirable. Early rising, however, implies an early hour of retiring, and care must be taken to afford ample facilities for doing so. Every nurse-maid should be impressed with the importance of informing the parents of all conditions connected with the health of the child that may demand attention, and of revealing at once any injury that may have been sustained.