Great Falls tribune., 1921-03-07


is the girl who wants to be a nurse !?
The national nursing organizations Of
the country are looking for her, be-
cause lately, she doesn't seem to be
looking for them.
Nursing has always been q woman =
work. Out of every class of high
school graduates, or even out Of gram
mar school graduating classes. there
have invariably been some girls who
would be nurses. Now, one big hos
pital in New York reports that instead
of having 50 or 40 pupil nurses enter
ing each year, it gets only about four.
That proportion is repeated all over
the country, and conditions are worse
in the smaller hospital schools where
facilities for training are not so at
tractive to student nurses.
When the war offered adventure
and dramatic service to volunteer
nurses there were thousands of women
who studied and worked untiringly-
even to sacrificing their health, some
lasted. After that, like the soldiers.
most Of them wanted to get back to
their regular lives. Nursing with them
was war work-incidental.
So the war did not flood the country
with nurses seeking civilian employ
ment. On the contrary. the lack of
nurses for hospitals and homes has
become acute. And because the fu-
ture looks still more critical, the ma
tional nursing associations have started
campaign to interest girls in nurs-
ing as profession. This campaign
has already been taken up enthusiastic
ally in "a states, for the need for more
nurses is nationwide.
While recruiting is being pushed.
the nursing organizations are also try
ing to awaken the hospitals to the
fact that they cannot expect to attract
the kind Of girls that should be in the
nursing profession unless student life
IS made easier and more profitable.
Inc hospitals were beginning to see
this for themselves and a reform is
under way.
Overworked Students.
IN the past, the student nurse
worked II hours day. Her classes
were moved about from one hour to
another or left out entirely when her
services were needed about the wards,
In fact, these conditions still obtain
III some training schools, but they will
not last long, because girls will not
enter these schools. Progressive hos
pitals have shortened the pupil nurses
duty to eight hours, though in some
schools studying and class work has
to be done outside of this period.
What the nurses organizations are
saying is that no hospital should take
students for the purpose of getting
free labor. If a hospital is going to
conduct a school it should understand
that it's obligation to the students
to give them a thorough Trainings
as great as it's obligation to the pa
tients-to give them proper treatment.
That they do not all feel this obliga-
ton toward the nurses they are to
send out to all sorts Of responsible
positions is proved by such facts as
those given by a state inspector of
training schools. This inspector fig
ures that 80 per cent of the training
schools that he visits are to varying
extents taking unfair advantage Of
the rights of the pupils in the alleged
interests Of the sick"
One way in which the pupil nurse
is often carelessly used to help the
hospital is that sometimes a patient
in the hospital desires a nurse ex-
clusively for his case but cannot pay
the rate of graduate. He says he
will take an undergraduate nurse. and
one Of the pupils is detailed to him at
about half the graduates fee, the
money going to the hospital. Now if
this work lasted a few days, even a
week. it might be practical experience
for the student. She would learn
something of that particular type of
disease. But the case may go on for
weeks or months, and the nurse is
gaining nothing.
RoSiapS ron IoDp bo,Irc and
flexible system Of instruction in train
ing schools, pupil nurses have had to
put up with bad rooming conditions