The children's hospital, the medical school and the public / by L. Emmett Holt.
- Luther Emmett Holt
- Date:
- [1913]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The children's hospital, the medical school and the public / by L. Emmett Holt. 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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![quality be poor, the larger it is the worse for the public and [91] the profession. Numbers do not count in science so much as other considerations. In New York, at least, the greatest embarrassment to the scientific study of disease in hospitals is the size of the ser- vice, and the demands made upon the medical and nursing staff for the routine care of the sick. The time needed for the thorough study of difficult and obscure cases is not to be found and progress in clinical medicine is therefore slow. I mention these points, not because they are new, for every hospital * physician fully appreciates their force, but in order that lay [92] members of hospital boards may get the point of view that the chief function of a children’s hospital is to determine, by careful observation in the diagnosis and treatment of the few, how the many must be treated. The best results are to be obtained by the intensive method of study, not the statistical method. Some of the discouraging features of hospital work for children have been mentioned. There is another side of greatest encouragement. The great difficulties are to be found in the first year. After this age children are the most hope- ful patients to deal with. Nowhere else does effort tell so effectively in results. With adults hospital work is, much of it at least, only patchwork, putting an old hulk into such repair that it may keep afloat and do duty a little longer. With children it is more like new construction, starting a new life straight, with all the satisfaction which this brings. A special hospital like this can do much for the community esides caring for the sick poor. It sets a standard of medical practice for the profession of the city. It is an exponent of modern science m its particular field. Here should the best hygiene be illustrated, the best feeding be practiced, and the most intelligent care of the infant sick or well be exemplified Such ideas spread gradually from those immediately con- nected with the hospital to the general public. One of the most effective means of influencing the public is by nurses who have been educated in the institution. Not only tteTr d u7eS bS ta’,ght “ knm,k^ of children and the.r diseases, but a school for training nursery maids in the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22447957_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
