The herald., 1897-10-17
WHAT It MEANS
TO Be A NURSE.
Vivacious Story of Hospital
Experiences by One Who
Knows.
LIFE OF HEROISM.
Fearful Risks That Must be Faced
at a Moments Notice-Hard
on NOvices.


utter in your clear, concise way, WIFI
frank admiration in his fine dark eyes
a fabulously grateful patient. kissing
the shadow cast by your white-robeo
figure, as you fit by-this is the PIC
ture which floats, enveloped in rosy
halo romance, before the eyes OF girls
who have suddenly grown tired. Ihe
girl who has grown tired is far from
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 be
gotten out of each.
Is nursing a failure? 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, ana
she answered emphatically, From
practical standpoint, no; from ro-
mantle one, yes, yes, yes! Print that
in red letters, if there is any hope OF
the girls seeing i'll"
1.-THE poor probationers!" she contin-
ued. THAT is what we call the UNDER
graduate nurses, you know. Ihey
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
q 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-everything in fact, but
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, head nurse Is human
and an autocrat. An angel autocrat
might do; but Cars and head nurses
are seldom loved. Why, it's no exag-
geration to say that it's only few
years 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
probationer. or thinks she needs some
nonsense taken out of her (most of 'em
do) it's all over with that young un-
fortunate. Every hard, unpleasant,
uninteresting, or even revolving case
that comes along is cast to her lot.
Every little screw that can be tigh-
tened on her personal liberty-which is
almost non-existent anyhow-is ap-
Piled
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 foreheads with eau de cologne,
and administering powders at stated
hours. A sweet little Southern girl
just entered, sat and stared at me In
speechless CONSERVATION for five min
utes the other day, before she found
strength to gasp: I t-suppose-l
would be expected to nurse-men' She
said she was going to write to her folks
At home about it. 1 don't know wheth-
er she did that, but l know she did the
work assigned her."
"I suppose" she was asked, that q
nurse under training can refuse no case
on any grounds?"
"None whatever, unless it is physica
disability for work, in which case she
is sent home. Age, sex, nationality, de-
gree of cleanliness and character o.
disease, count for simply nothing.
patient is a patient-in theory at least
between the fine lady with N. p. (wt
haven't time in the hospital to sa.
nervous prostration) and the de
bauchee with delirium tremens, there il
no choice allowed-and really very lit
tie choice to make. L have nursed ;
raving wreck whose own wife was 81
afraid of him that she locked hersel
I'D in her room and called through tn
keyhole to be told when he began t.
sink"
"And you were not afraid?"
"Afraid?" She was a stronghold
ured, splendidly- built young woman
and she laughed triumphantly. "Of ;
creature too weak to hold thermom
eter in his mouth. I only mentione,
that as an example of the seamy sid
Of our calling. Indeed, sometimes
seems all seams. In her last year o
training the probationer is sent to out
side cases. usually among the poores
and dirtiest class of society. Here, toe
she cannot refuse any case. and if sh
isn't made startlingly familiar with tn
way in which the other half lives-well
"How about sleeping-or stayin
awake-in a room with six persons an
a cook stove? There's no way out O
it; that's the way they live, and yo
can't force them either to rent anothe
unless the disease is contagious. o
running out for a policeman in the dea
Of night to protect sick woman fror
her drunken husband? A very sa
case knew of was of a young and yer
conscientious girl whose first outsid
case was that of a child with scarle
fever. She found she was expected t
sleep in the same bed with the chilt
and when she demonstrated the pa
rents-very ignorant foreigners-flatl
refused to provide another bed or eve
allow her to sleep on the floor. 'Yo
vas de nurse, and you sleeps nit d
child, they insisted. Too inexperience
to know she had right to appeal t
the doctor; she submitted, caught tn
disease, and died. That, however, wa
an exceptional case. The plain prose c
everyday nursing is commonplace
enough, dear knows?
"'But it is not hospital forever yo
,ra,e about to remark. No; withou