New-York tribune., 1900-08-10
VALUE OF GOOD NURSING.
HOW DEPENDENT THE DOCTORS ARE
UPON IT-ATTRIBUTES A NURSE
SHOULD POSSESS.

In our reminiscent moments, when we owen
upon the great advances medicine and surgery
have made in the last few decades, we often lay
too much stress upon our science and upon the
remarkable labors of our colleagues, and too little
upon less obtrusive co-aborers who are
never heard in public urging their claims for per
sonal recognition and priority, and yet without
whose efficient collaboration the wheels of pros
would have been sadly retarded, if not stopped
altogether" says writer in The Philadelphia
Medical Journal"
Chief of these helpers are the nurses They
save the lives Of many doctors every day by as
sumng responsibilities unknown to their predeceS-
sors and so robbing the work of its harassing
wear and tear And who can calculate how many
patients lives saved by the alert trained mlnd
ready to recognize danger in its uttermost out
posts, and so able to summon timely aid? And yet
for this very reason, because We are so dependent
upon these noble helpers in work. We should
utter warning and enter "a plea for still hlsher
and nobler ideals in their work
The trouble with the rank and file Of our nurses
Is that they are spoiled in their training for the
one great dominant impulse Of the true nurse, old
fashioned as well and trained. should be the
tender love Of the sick and suffering, sense OF
having mission in the world only rightly fulh!led
when with warm heart and skilled hands Artins
some little bit Of the worlds weight of woe
We have often thought that each training schooI
should have chair the humanities, continually
emphasizing TO the nurse the emotional, humane
and religious side Of her calling. So true is this
impulse no woman has a right TO enter the SICK
room, any more than unconverted man has a
right TO enter the pulpit a blind man TO be
painter All the scientific superstructure wnlch
can be piled on cannot make up for this awful de-
hciency in their foundation.
And yet chair, formal lectureship, would
never make up the lack of It. for one cannot have
q professor TO inspire affection any more than one
can buy affection in the market 1t rests after
all in the head of the school; she is the woman
by force of daily example by precept ana practlce,
TO see that this tenderness is in the women s1e Sc
leCrs for the course. and TO see that no hnes OF
training are followed which Will tend to repress
this essential element
1T is the testimony Of a great surgeon that we
too much science (so-called) and too little re-
gard for the divine calling in almost all our tram
ing schools When come to seek for nurses IN
my private practice. 1 find the woman with true
calling is indeed Our training schools. some
OF them are arctic in their temperature and their
influence, and the influence Of chief nurses seems
too frequently 10 look 10 the murder OF a girI $
natural affection and tenderness. But the fauit
not seldom lies at our owl profession's door All
praise, then is due to the model hospital IN
Waltham. Mass where humanity is made the chief
issue. where the woman first gains her training
among the poor in private practice and has every
inducement TO develop the affection IN sym
pathetic personal relationship thus established De-
fore entering the hospital mill
Let have science and let US nave humanity
but let have science without humanity-L, E.,
the love and devotion which filed Florence Night
ingale's heart and without which there can De no
| true and successful nurse