VOL. XLV.

No. 1

ATTENTION to details is one of

the essentials to success in your calling, and in mine, too, for that mat

ter.

The small details mean much to the patient; they mean more to you.

All the rest of your life will be devoted to work, and if you are wise, you will occupy a part of it in study, not necessarily in the study of books, but in the study of humanity as it comes before you sick, suffering or well humanity, in its various phases, good and bad, saint or criminal, under such circumstances and conditions as it is given only to nurses and physicians to see.

A writer opposed to the three years' course of hospital training for nurses asserts that the average length of the trained nurse's life is only ten years, and uses this as an argument against the present length of time which the nurse has to give up to the hospital training school. He thinks that three years' preparation for a ten years' vocation is unreasonable and unnecessry. To me the argument appears a good one. It may interest us to consider for a moment what becomes of a nurse at the close of those ten years.

Their ranks are depleted as follows:

1. By matrimony, many marrying a patient, a doctor, the patient's brother or father, and not infrequently the consolable widower, all of which may or may not be commendable, but is not conducive to continuing as a nurse.

2. By illness, previously inherent in the system and excited by the hardships and exposure of hospital labor.

3. By death, brought about by the severe and unaccustomed duties of nursing, or coincident only.

4. By promotion. Many of our New York pupils become superintendents of new schools throughout the country, or take a place in an executive capacity in private institutions.

5. There are those who drop out and go into other occupations, or owing to changed circumstances or conditions, or the changed views of relatives, return to the homes they probably never ought to have left.

Health, and robust health at that, is almost as necessary to a trained nurse as steam to a locomotive, without which neither can go far. A nurse who is frail or weak or has constitutional tendencies

toward illness had better face the situation squarely and bravely early in her career. Success in nursing is not for her.

Neither is it for her who does not appreciate the seriousness of her choice. of a livelihood, and who has ulterior motives in taking the hospital course. To both these I would say, even if you have been graduated, give up the work of nursing; you will very likely discredit it and yourselves.

I would suggest as the first essential that you fall in love with your work after graduation. You are no longer under the discipline and direction of stern and unyielding authority, perhaps rebelled against, but invaluable to you because it is authority and to be obeyed.

In place of this authority, set a standard for yourselves, set it high. You may never reach it, but it will stimulate you to try, and because of it you will strive and persevere and succeed. Upon such effort your success depends. The more you try the better you will do and the better nurses you will be.

Don't set your standard beyond being a nurse; you are not a doctor nor a detective, and it is not intended that you shall in any way take the place of the one or the other.

Don't undertake, because you think. the physician in the case is giving the wrong drug, either through ignorance. or criminal or murderous intent, to give an antodote or play the spy. There is a proper course for you to pursue in such

cases.

The occupation of nurse is an honorable one, next, perhaps, to that of the sister of charity, the earliest type of trained nurse.

Nursing implies the exercise of an acquired proficiency in certain more or less

mechanical duties, and in this respect can attain almost to an art. The art consists in the ability to make an ill person comfortable in bed, also in carrying out the orders of the doctor, as completely as can be done without friction, and to the satisfaction of all the interested per

sons.

You must be quick-witted, a good observer, conscientious, resourceful, of good judgment, diplomatic, and above all you must adjust yourself satisfactorily. to the domestic arrangements of the family in which you are placed.

In addition, if a surgical nurse, you must know how to clean your hands, the patient's wounds and skin, the instruments, prepare the room and the dressings, solutions, etc., again with the least disturbance to all concerned.

When you take the pulse, temperature and respiration, do it gently, pleasantly and firmly; not aggressively nor perfunctorily, but as things to be done to help the patient, and as if you liked to do them for that reason.

An agreeable voice in the sick-room. is a valuable asset; you must have it; cultivate it if you haven't it.

Your manners are important; the people you are with will expect refined manners of you. Manners may not make the man, but they will go a long way toward making you a successful nurse.

Strive to be tactful to your patient; remember a sick man's character is changed, that the normal restraints are weakened and many frailties that good health hides are exposed when he is ill. Patience and tact will look beyond the present to the future. Don't sham a feeling or a pretense that you haven't got.

The faculties of the sick are often very

acute and the patient will see through you to your discomfort if you do.

Ever strive to improve your knowledge. There is no reason why you should not be cultivated. Socrates was a stone cutter, Plato an itinerant seller of oil; the modern American philosopher, Thoreau, was a laborer.

You can cultivate coarseness or refinement, ignorance or intelligence. Choose the better part, enhance the value of your personality and your chances of success will be increased thereby.

There are unpleasant things in your chosen life work, but do them; there is drudgery in it, there ought to be; there are hardships in it, there ought to be; the experience is invaluable and develops your persistence and courage.

Drudgery keeps us to our duty, it makes for strength of mind and determination. All this is the discipline which brings out character. Character means success. A strong character based on experience, determination and courage will never fail.

Emergencies you will meet steadily and coolly; for that purpose you are a trained nurse. But after all don't expect your nursing life to consist of emergencies. Life is made up of the little hardships and difficulties. The patient looks to you for relief from the tedium of bedridden existence, painful position, uncomfortable headaches, lame muscles, mental pin pricks, the irritations of a fretful mind.

If for any reason or diversion you shirk your work, you are a false nurse. False to your patient, false to your calling, false to the community which by implication you agree to serve, false to

your moral obligations, false to yourself.

Do your work thoroughly and honestly, do it as if you were proud of it; be proud of it. Don't do it for the material reward alone, although that is a reason. not to be depreciated. "The laborer is worthy of his hire." Believe that because of what you do humanity is being improved, and the world is the healthier for it.

We who live now are debtors to our ancestors; let us pay in a little part in this way our debts to those who have preceded us, who worked for us in living honest and self-denying lives, and made ours the better and the happier for this inheritance. We owe it to society to return what little we may by our unselfish service to our fellow beings.

So you are to place a moral value on your service in addition to the pride you take in it, as well as the substantial results which it will bring you.

Steadily keep in view then the moral duty to that society in whose complex life you are no unimportant part. The humble worker like yourself and myself is the elemental worker, and it is important that you do your duty gladly, cheerfully, willingly and purposefully, knowing that every stroke of work helps to brighten the burdens of life and make this great world that much the better.

Wherever you work out your appointed lot, whether as the head of a training school, general of a division, so to speak, or a humble soldier in the ranks, do it proudly, reverently and faithfully.

"Act well thy part, there all the honor lies."