The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-02-24
Our New York Letter.
The Training School for Nurses-New
York Public Charities-The Sphere Of
Feminine Usefulness.
New York. Feb. 2I. 1880.

have existed for considerable time in Eu-
rope. The first one in this country was started
within ten years in New York, and number
more have since beenformed here and in the
neghboring cities. The attendants in the
three great municipal Hospitals, Bellevue,
Charity and the Homeopathic, are almost ex-
clusively pupils of the training schools that
have been created expressly to educate these
young women in the profession of ministering
to the sick. The school at Charity Hospital
Blackwel's Island, was founded in the Au-
tumn of 1915. 1t contains 40 scholars. They
are eligible between the ages of Is and A.
There have always been applicants enough to
keep the list full. None are accepted who do
not produce the most satisfactory testimonials
| in respect of character and disposition, and
who are not sufficiently well educated to give
promise of acquiring thorough knowledge of
their duties. Even then they are first entered
on a months trial, and are not retained beyond
that time unless they show evidence of fitness.
If they suit they go through course of in
struction lasting two years. They are paid $40
a month the first year, and SIS the second.
Separate rooms are provided for them, and
their table is supplied with the same kinds and
varieties of food as those of the superintendent
and medical staff They are under whole
some but not irksome discipline. They are
treated with Difference and courtesy, and moth
ing is ever done that is calculated to wound
their pride or impair their self-respect. They
have regular curriculum of studies and an
elaborate course of lectures. At the close of
their term they are examined by Board of
medical experts, and if they pass the ordeal
they graduate at the commencement next en-
suing and are furnished with diploma, which
accredits them as competent to practice their
vocation in private families or public institu-
tions. After that they are open to engage
ments, and get from SIG to $50 per week for
their services. There is constantly increas-
ing demand for this very desirable kind of
ministration, and the graduates very
soon find all the employment they want.
The most dexterous of them are very
much sought after. and are often en-
gagged several weeks in advance. The
advantages of the Training School system are
two fold 1t mitigates the terrors of disease
and hastens the progress of recovery. And
then it opens the way for an honorable and
useful career to young women who are obliged
to earn their own living and are becomingly
sensitive about having to perform duties which
tend to lower their social position. The nurse
who has attained aptitude in her art through
dligent study feels that she is entitled to and
knows that she will receive from all well bred
people the consideration and respect due to
her position. She will be trea ed as courte-
ously as the family physician is and under such
auspices the work she has to do will be done
not only well but cheerfully and with alacrity.
Those who have once availed themselves of the
aid of these helpful persons will always there
after call to them for succor when they have
need of it. Money is no object when suffering
is to be alleviated, and even if it were, it is the
| truest economy to have recourse to the best
| possible skill when the object sought is the
restoration of health.
! The Charity Hospital Training School is the
most creditable adjunct of our somewhat COM
| prehensive scheme of municipal benefactions.
The plan of bestowing aims by a vast corpora
ton is obnoxious to trencbant criticism. 1t is ex-
ceedingly difficult to dispense charity with prop
discrimination it is scarcely less so to arrange
matters in such way as to get value received
for the money expended. Governments are
seldom judicious almoners of the enforced con-
| tributions of the people. Feeding the hungry
and clothing the naked is commendable
exercise of benevolence, but like everything
else it may be overdone. The greatest care
should be taken not to relieve poverty so prod
igally as to encourage shiftlessness. The law
ought to be so framed that only those should
receive donations who are prevented by mis-
fortune from earning a subsistence. 1t hap
pens, however, much too often, that the men
who can work and won't are maintained at the
| 1sn for
rather better than those who would be glad to
work if they were not disabled. However, the
inmates OF the Hospitals are an exception to
this rule. They are sent there because they
cannot take care of themselves, and of course
it is in accordance alike with the dictates Of
expediency ard humanity to cure them as soon
as possible so that they may cease to be a bur-
den to the public treasury. And it is at this
point that New York has a right to put in
claim to excellence of administration. Her
hospitals are well conducted. The patients in
them are tenderly watched over, literally fur
nished with delicacies, and prescribed for by
the ablest doctors in the land. The poorest
pauper really secures as good medical advice as
the richest citizen. Moreover, since the intro
duction into the wards of the intelligent nurses
who are receiving their education in the
Training School, the hospital service is scarcely
lacking in single one of the accessories of
comfort usually to be found in the best private
houses. The introduction of this auxiliary
marks the greatest advance that has been made
in the management of our eleemosynary institu-
tions for a generation. Other improvements
have been wrought, but none so salutary as
that. Charity Hospital contains on an aver
l n. Al. e IL
quire constant looking after; the remainder
have to be seen to at intervals The order,
method and cleanliness of the establishment
are remarkable. The nurses wear neat and
becoming costumes; the cap and apron are the
only articles of apparel that suggest the idea
of uniform. They move about quickly, as if
they were in earnest, and quietly, as if they
were careful to avoid anything that would dis
turb the rest of the patients Their hands are
willing and their faces cheerful They are
presided er by supervising nurse who un-
derstands how to govern without making the
slightest parade of her authority. She, in turn
follows the instructions of the Chief of Staff a
capable physician who has executive control
of the whole institution. His discriminating
Judgment in the selection of pupils has brought
|
and placed it on a secure and enduring founda-
ion. 1t reflects great credit on those who pro-
jected it, and still greater credit on the parties
who manage it. The success which has marked
its career is a complete attestation of the vir-
tues of the system. 1t is no longer an expert
ment; it is an accomplished achievement.
There having been so complete a demonstra-
tion of the feasibility of enlarging the sphere
of feminine usefulness by preparing the way
for her education in the discharge of the ten
derest offices of gentleness and humanity it is
only natural that the example of New York
should find imitators elsewhere, and the steady
increase of seminaries of instruction of this ad-
mirabe kind may be as certainly anticipated
as it will be cordially welcomed. 1t is by such
instances of progress that we mark the contin-
ual advance of our race in all the means and
} appliances whereby the ravages of disease are
, arrested andthe burdens of sorrow lightened.