The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-29

nurse associations to give their labors,
not as charity but as public service AL
though their work originated In philan-
thropy, the chief motive which animates
all the ASSOCIATIONS now is pure social
economics. Hospitals are a heavy ex-
pense to the social body 1t costs in
fnitely more to care for an individual
In one of these costly institutions than
in the Individual home. Besides, 1t has
been found that In many instances when
the mother or father is removed to the
hospital the whole family lapses upon
public charity for support. If the moth
err is taken away, the father seeks for
getfulness In the poor mans only pana-
eea and drifts into mendicancy or crime,
while the children are left to run the
streets and to fall into the children's
societies and Juvenile courts. If the faith
er is removed. the mother must either
work night and day and leave the chill
dren to the street or seek help in public
relief If, on the other hand mother
or father can be treated In the home, the
family life and the family pride are
preserved, and public relief is taxed only
for the services of the nurse.
No matter how numerous the hospitals
or how great their capacity, the over
crowding problem Is always pressing 1t
is the business of the visiting nurses to
relieve the congestion and to save the
hospital beds for acute cases by keep
ing the less serious out of the hos
pitfalls and giving them adequate treat
ment in their homes.
BY doing this, the nurse not only cares
for the individual case in the most eco
nomic manner, but she puts into opera
ton preventive measures which are even
more valuable and infinitely moro far
reaching by establishing in the minds OF
all the members of the family a wholly
new standard of living. To many poor
family a long and expensive Illness has
been a blessing in disguise. The ignor-
ance of hygiene and sanitation among
the tenement jewellers Dis due more to
the unfavorable conditions surrounding
them than to willful negligence, and the
nurses find that as a rule they have
only to inform their patients of what is
right to find 1t done. Frequently the
mothers tell the nurses that they would
have been saved endless trouble IL only
the sick spell had come years before.
The services which the nurses perform
for their patients are almost without linn
itation. Unlike most other specialists,
they do whatever is to be done They
wash and dress the children, scrub the
floors, wash the dishes and buy and
cook the meals. Wherever there is great
squalor, they supply proper beds ana
bedding and clean clothing. Wherever
there is want, they procure the aid of the
organized charities In case of need for
glasses, artificial limbs, crutches, or in
valid chairs, they find some means OF
supplying them.
TO avoid the appearance of giving char
ity they make a practice of asking for
nominal fee whenever it entails no actual
hardship. In return, they maintain with
their patients the same standards of eth
uuette and ethics which exist between
the high-salaried nurse and her wealthy
employer. The visiting nurse is perhaps
more free from dangers of automatic
charity" than any other humanitarian
worker. As server of the community
rather than the individual her work ex-
pands from the narrow limits of private
charity into thes broad lines of public
service.