The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-08
SKILLED NURSES.

From The " Y. Tribune.
We urged attention some months ago to the
business, or rather profession, of educated
nurses as path open for women which would
insure them work that would demand their
best powers of body and mind, and at the
same time pay them certain and comforta-
bic living income. From the number of letters
which we have received since then on the sub
ject we are confirmed in our opinion of the
imperative need of such callings for large
class of women who are not illiterate and yet
not capable of teaching or any artistic pursuit,
and the fullness with which this work meets
such need. Many women in our own knowl-
edge have studied during the summer to fit
themselves for the occupation, but found an
almost insuperable difficulty in the way of
obtaining instruction or preparatory prac-
tice, there being only one institution which
would furnish either in the country-that in
Philadelphia, which could admit only q
limited number. The subject has attracted
attention also in England, and provision is
making for as thorough training of nurses as
that Of physicians. A late writer in Fraser,
discussing the demand for educated women
in the sick room, places the proper maximum
price for skilled nurse at three guineas per
day, which is certainly higher than they are
at all likely to obtain. "A gentleman who
educates his daughter as a nurse, the writer
says, ''has provided for her future as securely
as for that of his son to whom he has given
profession"
However this may be, the fact here is that
SO long as there is sickness there will be a
| constant demand for nurses, and the prices
now paid to even illiterate, incompetent
women who fill the post are higher than those
, commanded by ordinary teachers. The
women are waiting, and so is the work, and
nothing is needed but the education TO bring
them together. Will not some of our pioneers
in works of charity take this work IN hand
and furnish the missing link before winter
! begins? To place the means Of self-help in
! the hands of the needy is assuredly worth
| treble the sum expended in aims. Besides,
the expense here is small. In the Institution
inaugurated by Warrington some twenty
years ago in Philadelphia, the machinery of
charity is, with true Quaker shrewdness and
wisdom, made to react upon itself so as to
become self-supporting. Two months is
enough for capable and alert woman to fit
herself for the business; education under
the best physicians and boarding are
furnished her at a nominal sum; a
lyiDg-in department provides at the same
time practice to her and attention to large
number Of charity patients; while the
house, becoming a home for the trained
nurses when out of work, pays large share
of its own expenses.
We hope to see a similar institution started
before cold weather begins in New York. II
would accomplish more good for women THAI
a dozen conventions to discuss their condi
tion. In a week it would be crowded Will
applicants ready to be taught how to USE
their heads and hands effectively, while al
the same time it would supply deficiency
long felt among us by furnishing a plaeC
where skilled aid could be certainly found in
time of illness or sudden peril