The Portland daily press., 1901-02-23

I
sometimes seems perfect curse.
IL is no wonder that trained nurses
graduated from the American schools are
not fitted to the needs OF the community.
You Will md on the registers In the large
cities hundreds OF unemployed graduated
nurses, and OF course you VIII hnd In
the same localities hundreds OF suffering
4 patients. IL ~ not yet IN infrequeus ex :
perienoe Of the physician having 70 spena
a large part OF tins time Of hts visit IN
urging the family to have trained nnfss
come into the house, because the trained
nurses. not having been trained ~ snsy
,shouId have nsen In private pr.o.aos
we'll az IN hospital work, bring IN ensls
/ hospftaI nethods and play the mieoniet
| in the family. The servants. have scant
notice and all is upset. -
Tne blame doea not rest upon thess
graduate nurses. They do not know any
better. They have been poorly trained
and paid wages, meanwhile, IN compen-
sation. A training school that pays its
student nurses is exactly on par with
medical school which would pay men to
come and be educated In it; and think
that is ono OF the reasons why the train
ing OF nurses mas not succeeded IN this
country. IL we had at ones adopted the
plan shat women who wanted Co be
trained nurses should pay for their train
ing, just as men who wish to be pnysi-
CLANS must pay for their education, even
the hospital would have in honor feit
obliged to provide better teaching and
he.ter schools.
she conditions which 1 recognized as con-
! fronting me- 10 years ago and, now III
use too many Is, you must excuse.
With young women anxious to be nurses,
and with lots of poor people around, VINO
were going without nuraing services, 1
believed that II We ply sicians would pun
! together, agreeing 20 give great oeai OF
time and attention TO the work, ana
teaching all we knew, we could start
| school and have good neip from the
/ student nurses, and even IL we hao no
hospital, we could give them some kino
of good training. We started the Waltbam
Training school, and it fiouTished from
the beginning. The year after it started,
we had n small hospital which was car
ried ON by the school for two or three
years. Then the hos pital became 50 large
that another corporation took ~ In
charge, and the two have gone on hand
in hand, the hospital depending for Its
nursing services upon the training school,
which supplies nurses to the hospital un-
der contract, and to other hospitals as
called for.
am going to describe the school quite
at length, because while l see many defi-
ciencies in it, l believe very fully that IL
is the right kind OF school, that 10, that
we nave got hola OF the subject at the
right ena. The nurses come there Tor a
three years course, and we require con-
siderable educational qualification. We
have several college graduates there, ana
look forward to the time when the grad
uates of our women colleges Will feel
more Inclined to go into the nursing pro-
ression than they now DO TO go into even
the college settlements.
For six months the student nurses stay
at home In the Institution. Through that
six months they are trained as housekeep-
ers, and we go TO great pains with them.
/ For instance, In cooking, we have gone
! on Increasing the amount OF instruction
| in our deterIninAtio to give them as
1 full a course IN housekeeping as nurses
/ neei. We used Co give them course OF
1 lectures. Then We gave them cnsnoe
/ TO play at cooking, carrying out the re-
| cipes given 20 them; then we mace tnem
| do their own cooking, and finally we
secured the best instructor We could nnd
/ In the country, Miss Boland, from the
Johns Hopkins University. she begins
by taxing those girls out into the mar
kets, where they lsarn how to buy well,
\ and what TO buy, and how to judge the
| food In It's raw condition. AT first We
made the mistake of turning out nurses
who had to depend upon the Judgment OF
interested parties who wanted to sell 60
them. 1t IL hs necessary to know how
to buy the needed raw material as 1t Is
to know how to cook and serve 10 appetite
ingly.
Then they are taught elementary chem
| istry, a pretty stiff courss, fully equal TO
what wouldabe given In any high school.
Then they have their cooking In miniA-
4 ture In glassware, with thermometers,
] where the science is explained, where they
learn by actual experiment what tempera-
/ ture 1t takes 60 brown fat, and where
they have to artiiioialiy digest food
| cooked in different ways, until they
I know from their own investigation what
effect on the digostibility OF raw material
| different kinds II cooking have. Then
they have to carry out In bulk what they
are studying In the chemical laboratory,
! ana not q single dish of food Is brought
| on the table that is not cooked by the
I nurses A Radcliffe graduate comes
/ there and Is put for week at scru bling
Kettles, and tnen for a week at making
bread, then for week in charge OF the
whole kitchen establishment. The chief
In charge thus changes every week. 10
| this one branch of nursing we devote four
| half days week for four months, and
/ we flrmly believe IL necessary 1n order TO
ut nurses properly for their profession,
because after all, nursing Is home-mak-
ing for the sick, and the woman VINO Is
not perfect housekeeper can never be a
perfect nurse. For, 1t may be, she is sent
| to family where the house keeper her
self is laid low, and it may be that the
| life of that sick mother. and the health
! OF lalE uOZeu ObubEs IN tDhb lhAAAiy Gc-
/ pand upon her skill in housekeeping.
/ Unless she knows how to cook, herself,
she cannot direct others. Housework IS
drudgery only TO those who do not know
| how to do 1t
Now, our experience is that it is possi-
BILE Co create IN any intelligent young
woman an enthusiasm for this kind OF
work. They are taught how 60 get the
most nutritious diet for ten persons out
of two dollars day, or three dollars n
day; they are taught how they can beat
feed large family on a dollar day.
Where mothers have died leaving chill
dren, and the little girl or twelve or tif.
teen has had TO take her mothers placs,
and the poor laborins man has peen
struggling on almost broken down to the
ground, 1 have many times seen oui
student nurses seek out those places oi
their own accord, and study out with the
children how to buy food TO the best ad
vantage, and teach those children now &C
cook, not solely for the sake OF doing
good, but largely out OF their enthusiasm
FOR carrying on this kind of work.
Their first lessons In nursing are ont
side, in district nursing; they are taken
| 1Nw sanahar nd told how tn dr