Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-05-30

time, and as inseparable from her calling,
as they should have been.
The second nurse was sent by a famous
woman physician. and was highly recon-
mended. She was a very curious study.
She was q widow. not more than - or %,
ana drifted into trained nursing in this
way: As a married woman she had lived
in the country, near her father, who owned
his own farm. but had married 4 second
time. so that the children of the first wife,
though treated with the Utmost kindness,
did not feel quite so much as If il were a
home for them as if their own mOJhCT had
been living. This will explain way. when
her husband died, after a long illness,
which had drawn largely upon their small
resources, she did not feel like going home
with her two little children to STAY per-
manentiy. During her husbands Illness il
was thought she displayed excellent quail
ties as a nurse; the doctor cOmplinentcd
her highly, and when a patient of his re-
CURED q nurse he remembered and recon-
mended Mrs. Max. Through the recon-
mendatiOn Of this patient she was sent for
TO take care OF a lady in a distant city, and
so struck was the physician in attendance
with her brisk ways and natural capacity
for treatment that required Quickacss and
intelligence hat he urged her to go to a
regular training school and qualify herself
for becoming a professional nurse; and il
required only "A slight practice after this
training to show what a capable woman
can accomplish who is born with a rat
ural capacity for nursing"
In hospital service. in some hospitals. at
least. nurses are required to wear cotton
dress, white cap and apron. This sort of
uniform ought to be made obligatory upon
all trained nurses when in the exercise of
their profession Nothing is more disagree
able to the refined and acute sense OF a
sick woman than the contact and atmos-
phere of a worn and generally soiled and
harsh stuff or wooden dress or Jacket,
while the fact that il is not washable. that
it is absorbent, and may have been worn
under contagious circumstances, ought to
render wooden clothing iLadmissible for a
nurse while in attendance upon a patient.
The proper costume for a nurse at work
Is a straight dress of washable material, a
large white apron and a neat cap, under
which the hair can be tucked away, unless
ii is preferred short. and then il can be
easily kept clean. free from struggling
hairs and perfectly neat at all times.
A woman must have very great nicely of
personal habits and manners, and cultivate
q~uietness and unObstruSivenes who is to
be housed in one, room by the bedside and
in close personal relations with sick peo-
pie of cultivated habits, and il is these who
employ trained nurses. and vet there has
been more than one trained" nurse who
will go through the room like a whirlwind.
upsetting whatever she touches. rafting
coal. paper and opening ard shutting win
dOws with bang at a time when the pa
tents family and friends are excluded, for
fear of the cerebral disturbance which a
word might create. This is not intentional
carelessness and wickedness; it is ignOr-
ance and want of thought.
IL 4 DdAltllA ld~ d ldIilAlN III all J. Oh6lA
to be the duty of some member of ii TO
visit the sick room at times. and especially
early in the morning. to see that the Suf-
fering often endured through the long.
sleeplesS night is mitigatcd as much as
possible by personal attentions, which are
so much more welcome and so very much
more needed at this time than any other.
and sometimes to the enjoyment of a rest
full morning nap. which never visits the
unQuiet, nervous and uncomfortable pa
tient. whose pillows seem to threaten in
Sf3nt disaster whose hnIN is an 'Hl-ONpr
ache" and who is oppressed by the aC-
Cumulated STIFFNESS of the atmosphere,
laden with imaginary as well as real evils.
So entirely is a case in the nurses
power. and so greatly does the comfort
and progress of the patient depend unOn
her sympathy and willing performance of
duty. that much is sometimes borne rath-
er than to disturb her equanimity. Not
that displays of temper or perversity of
disposition are more often exhibited by
nurses than others: on the contrary. they
are, as "A rule. patient and much endur-
ing. The point to be impressed upon the
women who wish to follow nursing as a
profession iS-that "A nurse needs more pa
thence. more endurance. more sympathy.
more kindness. more insight. more intelli-
Eence. more of all the virtues. natural and
acquired. than for other professions. and
that no woman should attempt the train
ing to such a calling who does not realize
its high character and responsibility and
periods of life. A girl or woman who real
ICES this to the fullest extent. and also
possesses good temper. sound Judgment.
neat personal habits and a quiet manner.
may study for the profession of a trained
nurse with absolute surety of success.