The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1910-07-15
PHYSICIAN 0RIYIGAI
OF TRAINED nj RlES
SCOTS Idea That They Are Ia d
Profession and Speaks Re-
prOachfully Of Leaders,
A UNION in INDIANA.
Nurses Affiliated With the F.
of L. Still Speak of Their
Practice

his last address to the Society dis
cussed 1.-THE Nursing Problem" 1t
is reproduced in the New York Med
ical Journal. After praising the work
Vt nurses and the young women who
take up nursing as their life work
ae continues:
I'VE have gladly aided the nurses
in almost everything which they
thought desirable, and have been cas-
lily persuaded to indorse and cooper
ate in things the Significance Of which
we did not always stop to study and
some of which are now being called
in question. The main purposes of
the whole movement In the nursing
of the sick and in meeting the needs
of physicians in the hospital and the
home were so plainly being accom-
plished that it would have seemed al
most petty to criticise where so much
good was being done. 1t would have
been like looking gift horse In the
mouth.
I'VE have seen the natural rise Of
leaders among nurses. some of them
women of ability and force of char
acter, and some typical examples Of
organization politicians. We have
sometimes been skeptical or even a
little startled at their doings, but
they have usually easily led us their
way, and we have hardly felt like
FALLING a halt among others while
over-straining ourselves somewhat in
the same direction.
"And so we have almost suddenly
come to realize that some radical
things have been accomplished or
are aimed at. That the body Of every
day trained nurses and student nurses
is largely under the direction and
even practical domination Of a few
leaders; that the training schools
are coming to be more and more I'M
der management and control quite in
dependent of the medical profession,
and, what is of more moment, IL we
are to believe some critics, are being
used to advance the political inter
ests and plans of organization poll
ticians.
I'VE have seen custom develop
ing almost into a system, as the re-
suit of which people of moderate
means cannot without undue sacrifice
obtain the services Of a trained nurse,
and this, too, in spite of the earnest
protest of some Of the most high
minded leaders among the nurses.
So far has this feature of things
gone in some places that the extreme
has been reached in the formation
of q local trades union among the
trained nurses of leading Indiana
city, to affiliate with the American
Federation of Labor. And this has
occurred almost coincidently with the
advice handed down to the trained
nurse proletariat that they are to as
sumo the position of membership in
profession
st is quite evident that deliber-
ate and systematic effort is being
made by some leaders to cultivate
among the rank and file Of trained
nurses the use of the terms 'profes-
sion and practice in the technical
sense. They are constantly reminded
that they are 'practicing their pro-
fession' among the public"
After celebrating upon his theme
DR.. Potter asks these questions:
as the establishment Of indie
pendent State boards Of examination
and licensure for nurses and State
registration for nurses necessary
or rational or expedient thing in the
best interest of the public, the medi-
cal profession, and the vocation OF
nursing? Should the whole system
be abolished or radically simplifed?
SIS the anxious endeavor to estab-
lish popular and official recognition
of nursing and the nurse as belong
ing to an autonomous and indie
pendent profession either rational or
moral, and in harmony with a proper
alignment Of things in the social or
der? Is it to the best interest Of the
three parties concerned, the public
always first, and promotive Of their
harmonious working?
SHOULD there be a revision in the
training schools, especially short
ening of the time required for grad
uation?
what of the question of the
charges for nursing service. and Of
the application Of them to the pub
lie?
Does the logic of the situation. the
rights of those who aspire to make
business of nursing the sick, the
requirements of practical medicine
and surgery. and the rights and needs
of the public point toward the estab-
lishment Of two grades of trained
nurses, the one primary and graduate.
the other ordinary and simply certi-
fed? Practically we have such in
crude form now; shall we hereafter
have it in definite and orderly form?
SHOULD the whole nursing problem