The Portland daily press., 1901-02-23

In ls}3, n Luthetan minister, Theodore
| Fliedner who had been prison chaplain az
Dusseldorf was called to parish at kai-
serswerth on the Rhine, and he walked
there in order to save his parish the cost
of his Journey. He came to n village OF
less than /, 900 inhabitants, poor farm
ing population. shortly after he reached
KaisersweIth, his church was sold, be-
cause one Of his prominent parishioners
had become involved in bankruptcy, and
had not made over the papers properly, so
| that the church went In his failure. Then
/ Fliedner had to go in search OF money to
redeem his church. He went through the
| Flemish provinces, through Holland ana
/ Belgium. and crossed over into England,
/ and in that way he succeeded IN raising
money to redeem his church, ana on thds
I Journey he also carried out his long nelu
I desire 10 examine into all sorts OF
eleemosynary institutions. He hau Pc
culiar fitness for doing that sort OF WORK
and he visited every almshouse, every nos,
pital every asylum, and he also visited an
The people that he could hear of who were
Interested in such work, and he visited
two old deaconesses in Holland, who per-
hans then were the very last living of the
old Lutheran order of deaeonesses. He
came back to kaiseTswerth, not only with
the gold to redeem his church, but with
more knowledge on the subject of nursing
than any man had at that time, and |
was almost going to say than any have
succeeded in gaining since. He was long
headed. far-seeiug man, and he conceived
it his duty in that little parish OF kaisers-
werth to train young women, so that ne
should have supply of helpers who would
take complete care OF every case OF dis
tress That was--his purpose and he more
than fulfilled it, for his training became
so popular that he was overrun with ap-
plications iom other parts of the world,
and when he bad his golden Jubilee, there
were 5000 of his nurses at work in differ
eut parts of the world But Fliedner,
though be visited this country between
i 1850 aud 1860, and established institutions
| as models, did not succeed in planting in
| this country his kind OF deaconess tnstItu-
/ tions.
young, lovely English girl, while journey
! ing down the Rhine made chance visit
/ at Kaiserswerth. She became so impressed
with the splendid work Fliedner was do
| ing that, in spite of family opposition,
I and all sorts of obstacles, a few years alter
wards she insisted upon going there ana
1 she asked Fliedner to train her, Fiedner
said mo, you are not the kind Of girl ="
| Till then he had taken great, stionB'
| brawny German women, and he looked In
dismay at that delicate English girl, high
| ly educated, refined to the last notch. Her
heart sank, but she begged the more
earnestly, and he finally said, If YOU
want to be nurse IN this institution,
scrub that corridor floor. - She told me
! herself that it was very dirty floor, but
/ down she went on her knees and finally
/ she got il clean. Then Fliedner told her
| he would take her, and there she vas
/ thoroughly trained For many years she
was the only English speaking trained
/ nurse. You know how in the CIimea,
when reports came back to England that
more were dying in the hospital at
/ Scutari, than were dying on the battle
\ field, the whole English nation rose in
/ wrath and she was sent out with 100 vol
unteeI women to take charge OF that hos
pital. 1t was one triumphal professor
The fisher women in France hauled the
4 boat in and the French frigate took her
| from MaTseilles. and the bells were rung
and the cannon fired in her honor, but she
/ was sick at heart, for she had 100 green
nurses with her | asked her once how
many of those 100 young women she took
out with her amounted to anything, and
she said, VERY few" ] said again do
you remember the number, =" and she said
''one." They had not been trained; they
did not know their business and there
was then no more chance of training
them, than on the firing line there is
| chance of drilling raw recruits.
] In our Civil War we did not have a
/ trained nurse from the beginning TO the
end. True, we had splendid selt-sacrific-
| ing women, who did their best. And for
/ several years more we had no trained
nurses, although it was well known that
| in England the training of nurses had
] been well begun, and that in Germany
nursing was recognized as a science. But
there was a smouldering discomfort
which was evinced in pamphlets notably
/ in one written by DIR. Storer, in Boston,
/ in 1908, showing the frightful lack of
nursing in this country.
The New England hospital for Women
ana Children started the urst training
school in this country. anu 1t was by the
splendid efforts OF DIR. susan Dimock,
/ who afterwards went down on ths Sohill-
or of the Scilly Islands, Shs knew how
! to carry on d training school. she start
ed 1t with three nurses, who were gradu-
ated In 1912. one OF them has since
star Ell great many training schools all
over the world, and among them, at
/ Florence kl2htlngale's nomination, and
at the invitation OF the Emperor of
! Japan, one at Toxic, which is supposed
to be one OF tne best In the world. she
also started the Boston City hospital and
Massachu setts General Hospital schools
Now the training schools IN this coun-
try unfortunately did not adopt the Ger
man plan OF giving an all round trsin-
ing in the different branches OF nursing.
! What they did was to supply the immedi-
ats needs OF hospitals, ana so yery natur-
ally they gave to their student nurses
/ training only IN hospital nursing Ihe
/ graduates OF these schools in turn started
other schools upon the same imperfect
plan, all Of which keen sending out i'm
perfectly, incompletely trained nursss.
And all through the country that has
been the way In which training schools
for nurses have been started, and in
which they are now maintained. L think
1t is possible to convince any reasonable
being that 1t is wrong way of doing it.
A hospital is OF necessity largely an elee-
mosynary Institution. A training
school for nurses, like a medical school
for physicians, is essentially an education
al institution. The two purposes CON
fitct. For instance, from the hospital point
of view, a nurse should be kept at what
she does best, in the interest OF the hospi-
tai; from the training school point oi
view the nurse should always be pnt at
that which she does not know how 20 do,
I and when she learns that she should be
given some other service. The hospital
needs the intelligence and enthusiasm
Of student nurses, as the hospital needs
the services OF intelligent, enthusiastic
young physicians. Nurses during their
| studentsbip must have hospital expert
ence, but nurses who are trained only to