The record-union., 1897-11-02
TO Be A NURSE.
STORY OF HOSPITAL EXPERT
ENCES BY ONE WHO KNOWS.
Fearful Risks That Must be Faced
at Moments Notice-Hard
on Novices.

On NOV1ccSs
A White null cap surmounting sun
ny waves parted over a serene brow;
q doctor = indispensably young and
MISUNDERSTANDING on the words you
utter in your clear, concise way, with
frank admiration in his fine dark eyes;
a fabulously grateful patient, kissing
the shadow cast by your white-robed
figure. as you fit by-this is the pie
ture which floats, enveloped in rosy
halo romance, before the eyes OF girls
who have suddenly grown tired. The
girl who has grown tired is far from q
modern institution, but in olden times
She extinguished herself in convent
and if she lived unhappy ever after, no
one heard from her. Now when over
come with a sense of the holloWness OF
life, she precipitates herself into mat
rimony or literature. or trained nurS-
ing, with an unduly inflated impress
sion of the amount of reward to lie
gotten out of each.
Is nursing a failure? l asked the head
nurse of a great hospital by whom two
Young enthusiasts had just been sent
away sad. like the young man in the
Bible. who had great possessions, and
she answered emphatically, Prom
practical standpoint, no; from ro-
mantle one, yes, yes, yesl Print that
in red letters, if there is any hope OF
the girls seeing it,
The poor probationers!" she contln-
ued THAT is what we call the under
graduate nurses, you know They
come to us with such unique ideas OF
what nursing means. and they go away
so much sadder and wiser. l break
it to them as gently as possible that it
is no picnic, but l suppose they hate
me lust the same. Yes''-in answer 20
a gesture of dissent-"they can't avoid
hating the head nurse; she is the first
rock the novice runs upon While she
is in the hospital training she is under
rigid, almost military discipline Her
soul isn't her own; it is the head
nurses. So is her time, her tongue
her intellect--everythin in fact, pGt
the white apron she wears, and she
must stand ready TO submissively tear
it off and clean a patients window
with it if so ordered.
You see, a head nurse is human
and an autocrat. An angel autocral
might do: but Cars and head nurses
are seldom loved. Why, it's no eXaG-
geration to say that it's only IeW
wears since the very name, head nurse
ceased TO send a shudder down my
spine: about that time-with an IRE
pressible laugh-I became one of the
tyrants myself If the head nurse
takes a spite against any particular
nrobationer or thinks she needs some
nonsense taken out of her (most or EN-
do) it's all over with the young un-
fortunate. Every hard, unpleasant
uninteresting, or even revoltlnS case
that comes along is cast to her iot-
Every little screw that can be ught-
ened on her personal hberty-whlch Is
almost non-existent anyhow - Is an
piled
Even when the head nurse is nice
like me-. of course with another
twinkle of the eye), there are aWIui
shocks living in ambush for the dear
girls who think nursing is all bathlhs
fevered foreheads with eau de cologne,
and administering powders at staleu
borrs A sweet little Southern glri'
inst entered sat and stared at me III
sneechless CONSERVATION for nye MN
,,tes the other day, before she 1ochu
strength to gasp: / didn't suppose -
would be expected to nurse-men' She
said she was going to write to her 1oiKs
at home about it. l don't know Mhetn-
or she did that. but / know she dld ire
work assigned her.
Il suppose she was asked, tha'
nurse under training can refuse no case
on any grounds?"
"Nooe whatever unless 1t is physical
disability for work, in which case she
;s sent home. Age, sex, nationality, de-
sraes of cleanliness and character OF
disease. count for simply nothing A
natient is a patient-in theory, at least.
sT2etween the fine lady with n. +. I'VE
haven't time in the hospital TO say
nervous prostration'( and the de-
bauc1 .e with delirium tremens, there
is no choice allowed-and really very
little choice to make. ] have nursed
a raving maniac wreck whose own wife
was so afraid of him that she locked
herself up in her room and called
through the keyhole to be told when
he began to sink.
And you were not afraid?"
"Afraid?" She was a strong fea-
tured splendidly built young woman,
and she laughed triumphantly. "Of a
creature too weak to hold a thermome-
eter in his mouth. / only mentioned
that as an example Of the seamy side
of our calling Indeed, sometimes it
seems all seams. In her last year of
training the probationer is sent TO out
side cases usually among the poorest
and dirtiest class Of society. Here too,
she cannot refuse any case, and if she
isn't n. ade startlingly familiar with the
way in which the other half lives-welI.
How about sleeping-or staying
awaken a room with six persons and
a. cook stove? There's no way out Of
il: that's the way they live, and you