The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1896-11-18

4S and "keep." The
up to date nurse is largely the result of
a course of severe training, theoretical
ard practical, extending over two or
three years.
There are all sorts of private schools
which offer, for consideration, to train
a nurse in three or four months, and
some small hospitals agree to give
course of training in return for six
months service. These are all very we'll
for the woman who wishes to know
how to take care of the members of her
own family. The woman who is taking
up nursing as means of livelihood
would better await her chance of get
ting into one of the large city hospitals
The mere fact of holding a diploma
Hrom the New York hospital, Mount
Sinai, Bellevue, Boston City hospital,
the Chicago City hospital or any other
large city hospitals gives a nurse a
standing with the medical profession
and with her patients which she can
attain in no other way and which is
money in her pocket.
Bellevue hospital, New York, was the
first in this country to organize train
ing school for nurses, and most of the
hospitals throughout the country have
modelled their schools after it's plan.
The nurses at Bellevue and at most of
the large hospitals live in "A large, com
fortably furnished house, short dis
lance away from the hospital. In return
for their training they are required to
do oil hn in, cinl
wards. Each ward is in charge of
head nurse, who has nearly completed
the course of training, and several new
corners. Usually the nurses are obliged
to be at their posts from 7 in the morn
ing until at night. AS rule u stu
dent has two weeks vacation each year
and one afternoon and evening for
recreation each week.
The most trying part of the unfiedged
nurses experience is the six months she
must spend on night duty. This is apt
TO be the real test of her fitness for her
chosen vocation. Hospital patients have
way Of dying off i'll the night, and the
first thing she knows the student finds
herself alone with the dead in the dim
| lighted, solemn stiffness, obliged to lay
out the body without making any fuss
or disturbing the other patients.
No woman under p is received as a
student at the first class training
schools, and rarely are women over 80
accepted. Most of the students in the
city hospitals are country girls, and a
remarkably large percentage have been
teachers in country schools before en-
tering the hospital.
The first. thing for woman who de-
sires to become "a trained nurse is to
write to the superintendent of the train
ing school she desires to enter. She
will receive in reply blank application,
which she must fill out, giving her age,
her state of health and other particulars,
besides the names of physician and
two or three other persons who have
known her for several years. If her an
swers are satisfactory and there is va
cancy at the school, she will probably
be asked to arrange for personal inter
view with the superintendent If every
thing goes smoothly, she will be received
Oh probation for month. At the end
of this period she must supply herself
with the hospital uniform and necessary
books, and she will find herself safely
launched ON the course of hospital work,
lectures, classes and study which i'll two
or three years will make her full
fledged nurse. During this period OF
training the student nurse receives
from So to $12 month, according tc
the school. Out of this she must supply
herself with books and uniforms.
After graduation most nurses take NJ
private nursing. Some return to theii
homes or go to smaller towns where
there is q demand for the services of {
trained nurse with a city diploma. The
pay is not so great, but the quieter life
is preferred by many country brec
women. A large percentage remain il
the city. Very often the skilltul assist
ance rendered by student nurse at {
difficult operation has attracted the at
tention of visiting physician and hi
recommends her to his private patients
In this way frequently nurses get on the
regular staff, as it were, of prominen
physicians and are never out of employ
ment. The hospital keeps a register O.
its graduates, and doctors and patients
send there when i'll need of the services
of nurse
The real plums of the profession, one
of which every ambitious graduate hope
to secure are the positions of superin
tendents of hospitals and training
, schools. Many of the graduates o
American schools are at the head o
hosnitals in England, Germany, Tur
key and India A Bellevue nurse is su
perintendent of a hospital in China
All of these are superior positions, bu
there are some nearer home not to b.
dismissed Miss IOuise Darche, superiD