Year: 1873

THE EDUCATION or NURSES.


Among the most efficient and laudable of all
our charitable associations is one whose work
is conducted so unobtrusively that Its exist
ence is scarcely known except to those who
are engaged in it, and those who are benefited
by It's ministrations. We refer to the State
Charities Aid Association, which, although
organized less than year ago, has already
entered upon a career full of beneficent re-
suits. It is composed of ladies and gentlemen
Of the highest character and position, almost
all of whom have had large experience in
former charitable enterprises. It's object is to
supplement by careful and intelligent coop
Grafton the deficiencies of the official admins
tration of our public charities; to supply the
faults of the law which sometimes killeth, by
the spirit which giyeth life. An admirable sys-
TEN of visiting committees for hospitals and
asylums has been organized and has been
found of equal advantage in those
cases where abuses were practiced, as in
those where the wel-meant efforts of the au-
thOrities were inadequate to thepurpOses to be
subserved. We shall have occasion in future
to refer to the work of this organization.





iected measures which seems to us altogether
feasible and certainly very desirable.


The ladies who form the Hospital Visiting
Committees have been repeatedly impressed
with the great lack of trained nurses, by rea-
son of which the condition of the sick is need
lessy aggravated. The ignorance and indif-
ference of ordinary nurses, the irritating and
depressing influence they exerted upon sensi-
tive patients, were often found to neutrallze
the best efforts Of skillful physicians. By
many sick beds the unlOvely image of Sairy
Camp is no fgment of the Imagination, but a
positive and exasperating personality. 1t was
also recognized, with some modification, that
we were behind the rest of the world in this
respect. There are numerous training schools
for nurses in England and on the Continent,
where capable and intelligent women are pre-
pared for the delicate Offices they are called to
perform in the sicll-room. These educated
nurses are found of the highest value, not
only IN hospitals, but in private families
where, in sudden exigencies, their skill and
sclf-pOssessOn are infinitely more advantage
GUS than the excited and nervous efforts of the
tcndercst affection.


Moved by these considerations, the Commit
tee of the Bellevue Association applied to the
Commissioners of Charities for permission to
establish a school for nurses at that hospital.
The Commissioners considered the application
favorably, and the Medical Board to which it
was referred gave it the most cordial indOrse-
ment and agreed to the proposal of the Com
mttee to give up to them the nursing and con-
troll of six wards of Bellevue Hospital, subject
of course to the rules laid down for the dis
cipline of that institution. In the mean time a
member of the Association, DR.. Gill Wylie,
formerly one of the resident staff at Bellevue,
volunteered to visit England and the Cont
tent to study the system of training adopted
in their schools. He has now returned and
placed the results of his observations at the
service of the Committee. Thel professors
and medical staff are greatly interested in the
experiment, and propose to give it their active
assistance by lectures and clinical instruction.


Nothing is therefore wanted but the neces-
sary funds to place this laudable work upon a
firm basis. The amount Immediately required
is not large. The Committee ask, for the
present, for only twenty thousand dollars. A
house is needed for the Lady Superintendent
and nurses. Good wages must be paid to the
higher grades and propOrtionate amount to
those under probation. After six months,
when the training of the quota of nurses re-
quired for the Hospital is completed, it is
hoped that appropriations may be made for
training those needed for other establishments.
The Institution will then undertake the work
of training such as are required for
private families at nominal cost. Finally,
the Committee having the matter in
charge expect to found a college for this
branch of education, in which nurses shall be
especially trained for the care of special dis
eases. The advantage of such a system is
too evident for argument. The whole plan is
altogether praseworthy and appeals not only
to the charity but the public spirit of every
one. The required should be raised at
once without difficulty or delay. Those de-
string to contribute may send their cOntribu-
tions to the Treasurer of the Finance Com
mittee, Col. Henry G.. Stebbins, No. so Ex-
change place.