Remarks on the training of nurses : read originally as a report before the American Medical Association at its Meeting in New Orleans, May, 1869, and referred by it to the several State Medical Societies / by S.D. Gross.

  • Samuel David Gross
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the training of nurses : read originally as a report before the American Medical Association at its Meeting in New Orleans, May, 1869, and referred by it to the several State Medical Societies / by S.D. Gross. 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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    usefulness. The institution has three departments—nursing, mis- sion work, and parish schools—the primary object of each of which is religious visitation and instruction. The nursing branch does not embrace any menial service, and has hitherto been confined almost exclusively to the wards of the hospital. The number of inmates at present is very limited, but it is intended, as it increases, to extend the sphere of their operations into the surrounding dis- tricts. In Boston, at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, attempts have been made, but thus far witli little success, to educate nurses for public and other purposes. The inducements held out are the advantages of the practice of the liospital with boarding and washing, and also a small sura after the first month of probation; but, notwithstanding thus, there have, it seems, been few applicants who are willing to dedicate themselves to the work. Tlie Committee have entered into these historical details with a view of showing how little the Protestant church has as yet accom- plished in this important field of human enterprise and Christian benevolence. In this country, so replete in energy and progress, and so thoroughly alive to all the wants of a great people, the ground lies literally fallow, hardly a furrow having been drawn to serve as a landmark to arrest public attention. It will l)c difficult, half a century hence, to account for the utter apathy that has hitherto existed upon this subject; to find a reason whj' in a country and in an age which have provided a remedy for almost every other necessit}', this alone should have been so sadly over- looked and neglected. This want of enterprise has not been dne to any want of material. Thousands of good and noble women are read}' to enter upon the good work. All that they need is proper encouragement and a little aid at the outset, until, by a course of practical training, they are fitted for the discharge of their onerous and responsible duties. The late war afforded a striking illustration of what woman, roused by a sense of patriotism and humanity, is capable of accomplishing when her services are required by her bleeding countrymen. Every- where, by day and by night, in season and out of season, she was seen amidst the sick, the maimed, and the dying, alleviating suffer- ing, smoothing the wrinkled brow, inspiring hope and confidence in the desponding, and performing the most trying, menial, and revolt- ing offices, without the hope or expectation of pecuniar}’ reward. The mortality, great as it was, w’ould have been vastly increased if the efforts of the surgeons had not been faithfully seconded by these warm-hearted and generous women, so utterly forgetful of
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