Nurses and Nursing

IN these pages there will be found nothing that has not been previously printed. The reason for reprinting is to bring together and make available articles some of which have had only very limited circulation.The first three chapters were originally published in Nurses for Our Neighbors, a book no longer in print. Other chapters were published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, or in the Waltham Training School News Letter. The last chapter was published in the News Letter of the Guild of Saint Barnabas for Nurses.While it is hoped that the purpose of the book will be plain to those who read it, some explanation of it may not be amiss.The author throughout his practice as a family physician has been impressed with his own and his patients' growing dependence upon trained nurses. Convinced that their training really devolves upon the medical profession, he has tried to improve the methods of training them. He still believes that a proper school for nurses must be independent of hospital control, inasmuch as educational interests cannot be and ought not to be of primary interest to the hospital. He further believes that nurses for service in their patients' homes can be properly- trained only in such service. Probably it will never be possible to persuade nurses, whose sole training has been in the hospital, to accept these propositions, which continue to receive strenuous opposition from the leaders of thenursing profession. But possibly those who are really responsible for the training schools can be so persuaded.It is in this hope that this book is published. INTRODUCTION CONTENTS I. IDEAL NURSING: A SEARCH FOR IT II. THE ART OF NURSING IN THE OLD WORLD III. OLD-TIME NURSING IN NEW ENGLAND IV. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE V. ANGELIQUE LUCILLE PRINGLE VI. THE BARONESS VON OLNHAUSEN VII. THE FIRST AMERICAN TRAINING SCHOOL VIII. THE VICTORIAN ORDER OF CANADIAN NURSES IX. HELPING THE HELPLESS X. THE WALTHAM TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NURSES. ITS EARLY HISTORY XI. NURSING PROBLEMS XII. NURSING AS A DISTINCT FORM OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE