Nurse

“ One of the most important qualifications of a sick-nurse is a ready smile. A long-faced nurse in a sickroom is a visible embodiment and presence of the disease against which the eager life of the patient is fighting in agony. ”

“ The nurse who is able to go into a home quietly and unobtrusively and accept what she finds, even carpets and draperies, and still do clean work, is doing better nursing than the one who arranges a faultless room but upsets her patient and disrupts the household in the process. ”

“ If she can do a nurse's work better than a teacher's, and if no home ties of an imperative nature restrain her, she ought to become a nurse. A large field for the special work of nursing has been opened during late years. In all our prominent hospitals we find training-schools for nurses. The girl who feels she is fairly strong, and who has a good amount of physical courage, does a brave deed when she goes into the hospital to become a nurse. When she graduates, fitted to render service to the sick, and willing to devote her life to them, she is a noble acquisition to the world's helpers. ”

“ Nurse. Now God in heaven bless thee! Hark you, sir.
Rom. What say'st thou, my dear nurse?
Nurse. Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear say,
Two may keep counsel, putting one away?
Rom. I warrant thee my man's as true as steel. ”

“ Nurse. Good heart, and i' faith I will tell her as much. Lord,
Lord! she will be a joyful woman.
Rom. What wilt thou tell her, nurse? Thou dost not mark me.
Nurse. I will tell her, sir, that you do protest, which, as I
take
it, is a gentlemanlike offer.
Rom. Bid her devise
Some means to come to shrift this afternoon;
And there she shall at Friar Laurence' cell
Be shriv'd and married. Here is for thy pains.
Nurse. No, truly, sir; not a penny.
Rom. Go to! I say you shall.
Nurse. This afternoon, sir? Well, she shall be there.
Rom. And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall. ”

“ It is hard for you children of to-day to imagine what nursing was in the early part of the nineteenth century. To you a nurse means a trim, alert, cheerful person in spotless raiment, who knows just what to do when you are ill, and does it in the pleasantest possible manner ”

“ Were I called upon to turn nurse I could undoubtedly keep a room neat, smooth a pillow, and fold a sheet over properly; but I stand by in amaze and watch a friend of mine who has never been trained, but is a born nurse, who knows exactly how to lift her patient, when and how to give beef-tea and medicine, and who does easily and without effort what I cannot do at all, try as hard as I may to follow her excellent example. She may be anxious, she never shows it in the least; she may be tired to death, she does not look it ”

“ Let me preface my few hints by saying that all patients and patients' friends expect the nurse to know all about the diseases and their cures, the care and management of the sick,—that is common, ordinary nurses' business,—but there too many nurses stop; they often can go no further; and when one comes to a family and adds to this a broad culture, and an intelligent interest in the topics of the day, the respect and admiration of the patient and family are unbounded, and their surprise genuine. ”

“ A recognition of these rather intangible facts is of consequence to the nurse, as it deepens her appreciation of the necessity for nursing her patient as a complete entity, mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. We are insistently reminded at every turn that no one part of the patient, no one aspect of her condition can be separately considered and the remainder overlooked. ”

“ I would lay special emphasis on the nurse who, beginning as a young retainer, develops into a friend and to the end of her days moves on parallel lines with the family, even if she is not still of it. These old nurses, the nurses of whom the older we grow the more tenderly and gratefully we think—will no one give them a book of praise? ”

“ Now well-appointed hospital trains move backwards and forwards from the clearing hospitals to the base. For the first time we enter the nurse's sphere. Everything changes when the nurse appears upon the scene. She loves order. Cleanliness is her life. She is trained in all the little arts of nursing which bring comfort and peace. She can do what no man can do. The doctor is splendid at his own special work, the stretcher-bearer, the ambulance man, and the hospital orderly at his. ”

“ The nurse requires knowledge and practice to enable her to discharge aright her duty to the patient, as much as the physician and surgeon do to perform what is incumbent on them. Woman, from her constitution and habits, is the natural nurse of the sick; and, in general, no small portion of her time is spent in ministering at the couch of disease and suffering. ”

“ No thoughtful man who has watched her in the character of nurse, even when she is uneducated, will entertain a doubt about her happy qualifications for the management of the sick.
The most important responsibilities of a physician have reference to ventilation, cleanliness, bathing, feeding,—in brief, to nursing; and no one but a stupid, obstinate man would suggest her inferiority for such services.
I have no doubt that, finally, the medical profession will fall almost exclusively into the hands of women, as its most important part, nursing, already has. ”

“ We must ever be grateful for the shining example she has given to nurses, who in her find united that broad-minded comprehension of the ultimate aim of all their work, with a patient and untiring devotion to its practical detail, which alone combine to make the perfect nurse. ”

“ THE NURSE’S DUTIES DURING LABOR The extent of the nurse’s helpfulness during labor, both to the patient and to the doctor, will depend very largely upon the intelligence with which she grasps what is taking place and upon her own attitude, as an individual, toward the patient and the miraculous event which approaches. Important as is the preparation of the room and dressings, this other factor is almost equally influential. ”

“ And it is in the nursing situation that the nurse attends to calls for caring, creating caring responses that nurture personhood. It is within the nursing situation that the nurse comes to know nursing, in the fullness of aesthetic knowing. ”

“ In preparing the dressings and assembling the various articles to be used the nurse will do well to remember that, although it is possible to use a number of things during labor, it is also possible to do excellent work with a meagre equipment supplemented with a cool head and ingenuity and training and above all, an exacting conscience. The average nurse will wish, usually, to follow a median course in her preparations, having everything at hand that will facilitate the work; be adequately equipped for emergencies but not burdened with non-essentials. ”

“ More than this, the nurse whose skill is warmed by a sincere desire to give of her best will, by virtue of this very desire, learn something from each patient, and will be steadily enriched and broadened by her experiences. She will have more to give, and accordingly will derive increasing satisfaction from her service to each succeeding mother and baby that she takes into her care. ”

“ We are far from supposing that every woman is fitted to undertake it. Even a kindly heart and disposition alone are not sufficient, indispensable as they may be to the character of a nurse. The Notes on Nursing, lately published by one who has had a larger and more extensive experience of the subject on which she writes than any other woman, tells us what these trials and difficulties of the life are, as well as the various qualifications which are essential to the nurse's character. ”

“ For there the material exists, and will be used for nursing, whether the real "conclusion of the matter" be to nurse or to poison the sick. A man, who stands perhaps at the head of our medical profession, once said to me, I send a nurse into a private family to nurse the sick, but I know that it is only to do them harm. ”

“ Every woman, or at least almost every woman, in England has, at one time or another of her life, charge of the personal health of somebody, whether child or invalid,—in other words, every woman is a nurse. Every day sanitary knowledge, or the knowledge of nursing, or in other words, of how to put the constitution in such a state as that it will have no disease, or that it can recover from disease, takes a higher place. ”

“ Any firm, intelligent woman of tact, a stranger to the patient, is better than the old style of nurse, now, happily, disappearing. The nurse for these cases ought to be a young, active, quick-witted woman, capable of firmly but gently controlling her patient. She ought to be intelligent, able to interest her patient, to read aloud, and to write letters. ”

“ A certain amount of scientific knowledge is necessary, in this as in any other field, to give the nurse an intelligent background and a kind of definiteness and stability to her work. She should be trained in the essentials of general nursing, of surgical nursing and operating room technique, and in the care of babies. ”

“ Here is no light task nor mean privilege which is set before the nurse and in order to meet them fitly she must be prepared. The indispensable requisites for nursing and teaching the maternity patient, whether at home or in a hospital, are training, an exacting conscience, and genuine concern for her patient as an individual. ”

“ There is little that a nurse can do alone, in the presence of complicated labor, but her preparations and assistance will be more effective if she understands the purpose of the operations, and she will better appreciate the gravity of certain symptoms, which she is required to watch for and report, if she realizes the extreme seriousness of their import. ”

“ At all events, one may safely say, a nurse cannot be with the patient, open the door, eat her meals, take a message, all at one and the same time. Nevertheless the person in charge never seems to look the impossibility in the face. ”

“ Now a nurse means any person in charge of the personal health of another. And, in the preceding notes, the term nurse is used indiscriminately for amateur and professional nurses. For, besides nurses of the sick and nurses of children, the numbers of whom are here given, there are friends or relations who take temporary charge of a sick person, there are mothers of families. It appears as if these unprofessional nurses were just as much in want of knowledge of the laws of health as professional ones. ”

“ Never be afraid of troubling the doctor; he will always be glad to hear anything that will help in the diagnosis or treatment of the case. The nurse has much to do with an art whose end is the saving of human life; any neglect to act openly and intelligently becomes a crime.
26. Remember that kindness and tenderness as well as faithfulness are needful to successful nursing.
BEDSORES. Every precaution should be taken by the nurse to avoid bedsores on her patient. These appear most frequently upon the hips, but may develop elsewhere in parts subjected to pressure. ”

“ From the root of the old gospel another branch has grown, a realization that the call to the nurse is not only for the bedside care of the sick, but to help in seeking out the deep-lying basic causes of illness and misery, that in the future there may be less sickness to nurse and to cure. ”

“ Since this invariable cleanliness and close watchfulness are needed by all patients, whether of high or low degree, and by those in the care of doctors with widely varied methods, the nurse must be able to make adaptations to each patient’s environment and temperament and to the doctor as well, if all of her patients are to be well and happily nursed. ”

“ But to make these offices effective to their utmost, the nurse’s attitude and her care of her patient must be mellowed by an always deepening sympathy and understanding. She must endeavor, in each instance, to imagine the mental experience 545of the bewildered and timid expectant mother; of the terrified woman in labor and the discouraged young mother—these she must appreciate if she is to give of her best. ”

“ I wish in this part to give the nurse such hints that she may be able to help any woman who wishes to prepare for her confinement. I have been asked so many times to tell a young expectant mother just what to get, that I have made for convenience as full a list as is necessary for any baby or mother, with some hints as to the washing of the baby. The rest it is expected every nurse who graduates from a training-school would know. ”

“ Many of us who have been accustomed to look upon the nurse's occupation as one that may be undertaken when all other means of subsistence fail, without previous knowledge or training, must have been astonished to find what are the requisites for making a nurse in the best sense of the word. ”

“ The thing that counts in this connection is what the nurse, herself, means to the woman who is facing a very important and mysterious event, who, after every known aid has been given, must still go through a great deal alone, both mentally and physically. ”

“ If, then, every woman must at some time or other of her life, become a nurse, i.e., have charge of somebody's health, how immense and how valuable would be the produce of her united experience if every woman would think how to nurse. ”

“ There are a score of nurses in the hospital to any one of whom you are welcome, who are all much cleverer than I. What possible advantage to the man can it be, especially if he is seriously ill, to have a partially-trained nurse with him when he might have the best in the world? ”