The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-15
TRAINED NEGRO NURSES.
An Occupation i'm Which COIOred
Women Give Satisfaction.

New York Evening Post.
The second class of negro trained nurses
was graduated yesterday from the train
ing school CT the Colored Home and Hos
pital, at East Northumberland
street and Concord avenue. The class con-
sisted OF six nurses, who have fulfilled all
the conditions of the two years course at
the school, and passed most excellent eX-
aminations in every respect. This makes
thirteen negro nurses who have been sent
out from this school. When the course was
first established three years ago, the idea
met with a good deal of opposition, not
from doctors SO much as from other nurses.
Now, however, the course has proved to be
such success, and the graduates sent out
last year have made such good records, that
the opposition has entirely died away.
The project was originally started with
the idea of helping the negro women them
selves and opening a career for them, as
we'll as for the reason that there are many
situations where a negro trained nurse
might be fully as acceptable, If not more so,
as a white one The training is exactly the
same as that of the nurses in any other
hospital in the city-indeed, the novelty OF
a negro training school has resulted in even
more careful training than might have been
given in an ordinary school for white
nurses.
The nurses, feeling how much depended
on their record, have worked with a rare
faithfulness and devotion. No difficulty
whatever was found in securing places for
them Immediately after graduation, either
as head nurses in some of the small hos
pitfalls scattered through the Southern cities
or In private work here in the North; and
all the reports in regard to their work have
been most satisfactory. Those who have
had the care of children have been particu-
larly successful. One of the officers of the
COlored Hospital said that this part of the
nurses training could be carried out under
especially favorable circumstances there
because of the maternity hospital attached
to the institution. 1t has become so much
the custom for the very rich TO employ
trained nurses for the care of young in
fants that such work alone affords a field
that could for many years more than alb
sorb the graduates of this school. 1t is con-
sidered to be particularly important when
families travelling or far removed from
the reach of a physician that they should
have a nurse taught how to manage and
look out for such children, and capable of
meeting emergencies. 1t would seem that
in the of children the trained negro
nurse would be in an ideal position.
The recruits for the training school are
drawn from all over the country, from as
far South as Georgia and as far East as
Connecticut, most Of them applying Of
an examination before admission, and only
about half of those who apply are accepted.
Out of fourteen who took the course only
three were rejected as unsuitable In the
first two years of the school, and one was
obliged to give up her training account
of her health. The average OF the work
and OF the intelligence displayed by these
nurses was fully up to that of the women
in the white training schools, II not a
trifie superior.
The officers and managers Of the hospital
and school feel most confident of the con-
tinuing success Of this experiment, and are
greatly encouraged by the results so far
Not only is this work a resource and an
excellent profession for many negro women
for helping the race, both I'm the North
and the South: The greater the number Of
capable, Intelligent and well-trained ne
gro women that are sent out into the COM
munity the better for both races