Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-06-12
TRAINED NURSES.
Interesting Addresses ut the Graduation Ex.
ercises of the School in This City.

Interesting Addresses ut the Graduation Ex.
ercises of the School in This City.
Seated on the platform at Columbian Univer.
sity last night we're two ladies dressed in the
regulation costume Of blue and white, with
white caps, as adopted by all trained nurses.
They were the graduates Of the Washington
Training School for Nurses and were present to
receive their diplomas Of the ninth class of the
school. On the platform beside them we're
| Prof. Thomas Wilson, the president of the
school; Mr.. Henry L. West. vice president; DE-
H. L. E. Johnston, secretary; Miss D. Webster
Prentiss, treasurer, DR.. G. N. Acker, Col. NJ.
NJ. Parker, DR.. s. s. Adams, DR.. Toner and DR..
Vim. Lee.
PROF. WILSON'S ADDRESS.
Prof Thomas Wilson opened the exercises
with an address in which he told of the value
of trained nurses and the great amount of good
they we're capable Of accomplishing. In the
struggle for womans rights he said 1t was
strange that no more attention had been given
10 educating women nurses They we're
emlnently fitted, he thought, for the important
posluon. what the adjutant is to the general.
what the pilot is to the vessel what the eye is
TO the brain. the nurse, he said, was to the ply
slclan. 1t was upon them and them alone
whom the physician could rely. If they were
educated In their work and faithful to their
trust they could do wonders. The demand for
trained nurses, he continued, has rapidly in
creased since 1886, when it was that attention
was first given to the education and training OF
nurses Lastyear during theepidemic ofthe grip
the supply was not anywhere equal to the de-
more than ordinary favor upon trained nurses
and 1t was only question of little while
before they would BE as indispensable In the
sick room as the physician.
DIR. WARMERS THOUGHTFUL REMARKS
DIR. Amos G. Warner, the superintendent Of
charities for the District of Columbia, spoke
next, taking as his theme "why Trained Nurses
Are in Demand" He said that the infinite
division and subdivision of labor in modern
times has been much described in SO far a. it
relates simply to the work of men, but it has
not been frequently noticed that what was
formerly the work Of the women in the house
hold had been broken up into a large number
of specialties. 1t is not merely that the house.
wife no longer spins or weaves, or makes her
husbands clothes, or her own dresses and bon
nets; it is not that she frequently has nothing
to do with keeping the house warm in the city,
or little to do with the cooking. 1t is still more
remarkable that even in the matter of personal
service to her children she is being superseded
by paid specialists. She long ago gave up their
education beyond the primary grade, but now
the professional teachers object to her giving
her own children instruction in the alphabet
for fear that she will start them amiss. Even
below this grade. he continued, the guidance of
the very young children in their play being
given over to the kindergarten teacher, who has
studied and knows the latest and most APP
proved method of developing the infant mind
and body. 1t is long since in case OF grave sick
ness it was considered necessary to call in the
specialist known as the physician, but OF late
there has come to be an increasing dependence
upon HIM, and now another step is taken in the
personal service needed i'll the sick room is to
be given by specialist. He said that 1t was
not long since that paid nurse was supposed
to be needed only for those who had no near
relatives or fraternal associates to care for
them. In the hospitals the hired nurses were
of course necessary, but the hospital WAS
avoided as much as possible, as it was consid-
cred an unlovely place, where the maLgled
remnants of armies and the great army OF the
destitute sick must perforce be taken. When
the necessity Of having q professional nurse
was conceded it was not admitted that one spe-
cially trained for the work must be had, but on
the contrary, that any man or woman who
could keep awake all night would do.
THE VALUE OF THE TRAINED NURSE.
DIR. Warner said that as an agent of society
that did what it could for large number Of
unemployed it was frequently his business to
talk with doubtful-voiced women worried
faced men, who had failed in everything they
had previously attempted, to hear them say,
when asked what kind Of work they desired
''Oh, thought if l could get little nursing or
something OF that kind could get along all
right" DIR. Warner referred to the publication
Of a book by physician in this city which
sneered at the trained nurse and said that such
doctors will continue in vain against the adj
vent Of the trained nurse, because her presence
is justified by the time-honored principles that
underlie the division Of labor. 1t was
thoughs three years ago, he said, that
the increasing supply OF trained nurses
would soon lower the rates, but, on the con-
trary, while at the beginning of the
nurses was quite uniformly els per week.
common charge is now 81 and $50 per week,
and the former rate is largely limited to the re-
cent graduates The Boston directory, he con-
tinued, show that there is a growing preference
for trained nurses, of whom 271 were given
employment. while 40 non-graduates were &C.
cepted by the applicant for nurses. In conclu-
sion he said that the trained nurse is needed to
keep and guide us in the way of right living at
the critical times in our lives. On ordinary oc-
casions We must have the information and the
self-control necessary to guide our steps Alright,
but in the trying periods We need some one
with special knowiedg, and special skill to
guide our conduct, to protect us from our
selves and from the other Omnipresent enemy
the microbe. Besides the skin that can adjust
bandage and the strength that can hit
patient bodily at need, there must be the char
acter that by deserving confidence secures it,
and there must be the spirit of self-devotion
without which all work is drudgery and all
knowledge is dead and proitless.
DIR. II. l.. Z. Johnston then presented the
diplomas to Miss Mary Clare OF Virginia and
Miss Sarah Ann Suit of Ohio.
DIR. Samuel s. Adams closed the exercises
with an address on the part of the faculty.
ANAC0sTIA.