The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-17
WHAT 1T is TO BE A NURSE.
vIvACIoUs DESCRIPTION OF HOS
PITAL EXPERIENCES.

| Moments Notice-The Breaking in
of a NOvice-PriviIeges and PeuaI-
ties of Nursing Private Patients.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
A white null cap. surmountIng sunny
waves parted over a serene brow; a doc
| tor-indispensably young and handsome
| hanging on the words you utter In your
| clear, concise way. with frank admira-
| ton 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 picture which floats, envelop-
ed in a rosy halo romance. before the eyes
of girls who have suddenly grown tired.
The girl who has grown tired is far from
modern institution, but in olden times
she extlnguished herself IN a convent, and
II she lived unhappy ever after no one
heard from her. Now, when overcome with
sense of the hOllowness Of life, she pre-
cipitates herself into matrimony, or lit
erature, or trained nursing, with an un-
duly inflated impression of the amount of
reward to be gotten out of each.
Is nursing a failure? I 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 BIZ
BILE who had great possessions. and she
answered emphatically: From practical
standpoint. no; from romantic one. yes,
yes, yes! Print that In red letters, if there
is any hope of the girls seeing it!'
The poor probationers," she continued.
That is what we call the undergraduate
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
eff hat f1 .nfpr IL htTf 7 SIR
pose they hate me Just the same Yes"
in answer to 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 I'M
der rigid, almost military discipline. Her
soul isn't her own; it is the head nurses.
So IS her time her tongue, her intellect
everything, in fact but the white apron
she wears and she must stand ready to
submissvely tear 1t off and clean a pa
tents window with 1t If so ordered.
You see, a head nurse is Humankind
an nutocrat. An angel autocrat might do,
but czars and head nurses are
seldom loved. Why, its no ex-
aggeration to say that its only
a few years since the very name head
nurse used to send a shudder down my
spine about that time I became one of
the tyrants myself. If the head nurse
takes a spite against any particular pro-
sense taken out of her (most of EN- do)
its all over with that young unfortunate.
Every hard, unpleasant uninteresting, or
even revolving case that comes along Is
cast to her lot. Every little screw that
can be frightened on her personal liberty
which is almost non-existent anyhow-is
applied.
Even when the head nurse is nice
like me, of course-(with another twinkle
Of the eye)-there are awful shocks lying
in ambush for the dear girls who think
nursing is all bathing fevered fore
heads with eau de cologne and admins
tering powders at stated hours A sweet
little southern girl, just entered, sat and
stared at me in speechless CONSERVATION
for five minutes the other day before she
found strength to gasp: II didnt-sup,
pose-I would be expected to nurse
men! She said she was going to write
TO her folks at home about IT, 1 don't
know whetehr she did that, but I know
she did the work assigned her"
II suppose" she was asked, that a
nurse under training can refuse no case
on any grounds7"
None whatever, unless It is physical
disability for work. In which case she
Is sent home. Age, sex, nationality, de-
gree of cleanliness and character of dis
ease count for simply nothing A patient
is patient, in theory at least. Between
the fine lady with ". p. Eve haven't time
in the hospital to say nervous prostra-
tionO and the debauchee with delirlum
tremens, there is no choice allowed-and
really very little choice to make. l have
nursed raving wreck whose own wife
was so afraid of him that she locked her
self 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-featured
VIII
laughed triumphantly. "Of a creature too
weak to hold a thermometer in his mouth
l 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
outside cases. usually among the poorest
and dirtiest class of any case and if she
isn't made startlingly familiar with the
way in which the other half lives-well!
How about sleeping-or staying awake
In a room with six persons and a cook
stove7 There's no way out of it; that's the
way they live. and you can't force them
to rent another unless the disease is con-
tagious. Or running out for a policeman in
the dead of night to protect a sick wo-
man from her drunken husband? A very
sad case | knew of was of a young and
very conscientious girl whose first out
side case was that of a child with scarlet
fever. She found she was expected TO
sleep in the same bed with the child, and
when she demonstrated the parents-very
ignorant foreigners-hatly refused to pro-
vide another bed or even allow her to sleep
on the floor You vas de nurse and you
sleeps nit de child they insisted Too in
experienced to know she had a right to
appeal to the doctor, she submitted
caught the disease and died. That how
ever, was an exceptional case. The plain
prose of everyday nursing is common
place enough, dear knows.
" But il is not hospital forever you
were about to remark. No; without wish,
Ing TO lay on the dark colors of the pic
ture too thlckly, l must add that leaving
hospital service for private patients is
often exchanging the frying pan for the
fire. l have spoken of the theory that
patients are all alike. Well! you find
that it's a theory indeed. You meet love-
ly people who become your lifelong
friends-a few of them. You meet 80 per
cent. more cranks of the most appalling
kind. They think 1t is outrageous of you
for your unprejudced opinion of the doc,
tor: they complain-because YOU'RE nor