Sick-nursing essentially a woman's mission : being the inaugural lecture on the qualifications for and the conduct of sick-nurses delivered at the opening of the new School of Nursing in Saint Bartholomew's Hospital on May 1, 1877 / by Dyce Duckworth.

  • Duckworth, Sir Dyce, 1840-1928.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sick-nursing essentially a woman's mission : being the inaugural lecture on the qualifications for and the conduct of sick-nurses delivered at the opening of the new School of Nursing in Saint Bartholomew's Hospital on May 1, 1877 / by Dyce Duckworth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    not an unwholesome thing in itself, it is a discipline; and truly, if there are any people in the world to be sorry for more than others, they are, in my thinking, those who hve under conditions where no discipline prevails. However much or little of monotonous work may come to your several lots, you will find that each day brings with it in this place a never-ceasing variety of interests and novelties. The inner life of a large metropolitan hospital is a perpetually unfolding drama ; and I venture to assert, from prolonged residence in three of such institutions, that the life therein is at once one of the most engrossing and- fascinating that it falls to the lot of our common humanity to enjoy. For is not every side of life dis- closed there, and do not the follies and the vices, the frailties and shams, of our fellow-creatures meet us side by side with the self-control, endurance, and heroism— not seldom, thank God—exhibited amongst the very poor and lowly in our midst ? You are, therefore, to be congratulated upon the field you have elected to labour in. Often will it fall to some of you to do silent and unsought service to ])Oor suflerers ; and if you have the hearts of true women, you may now and then find, out- side the bare hmits of your duty, opportunities for little ministrations of comfort and assistance which will suggest themselves as you gain knowledge of your sphere of work and of human character.