INTRODUCTORY. THE recent efforts to improve and elevate the art of nursing, as shown by the multiplication of trainingschools for its study and practice, are recognized by all as constituting one of the most truly beneficent monuments of the age. In alliance with medical institutions, and supervised by the medical faculty to the end of the highest efficiency, these schools raise a vocation formerly regarded as vulgar, because followed by the ignorant, to the rank of a profession, thus opening a new field of activity to women, alike congenial, honorable, and remunerative. And, while the circumstances of a large number of women are thus essentially improved, the community reaps the priceless benefits of better care and mitigated suffering in sickness, more effectiveness in medical ministration, and the prolonging of human life. The immediate and positive good thus attained by the training-schools for nursing must lead to their extension in the future, and should commend them to the favor of all who can in any way aid in the promotion of their salutary objects. I have sometimes thought that indirect benefits, also of much importance, are to be expected from this movement beyond its strictly technical objects. It gives to young women an education which, whether they follow the profession or not, will be of great and permanent value to them in the common experiences of domestic life. No possible social changes in the future can relieve woman of those cares and responsibilities which spring from the maternal function and involve the welfare of the family; and it is too late to maintain that knowledge and training are not indispensable to the best performance of feminine home duties. But neither in the Ladies' Seminary, the High School, nor the Female College, is this invaluable education to be had. The training-schools for nurses give the best preparation of woman now available for her especial work and rule in the home sphere. By combining theory with practice, by uniting the cultivation of the head and the hand, the intellect, the feelings, and the active powers in a common discipline, they conform to the most advanced requirements of education. There are strong reasons, therefore, why young women of ability should in the future more and more avail themselves of the advantages of these schools, The efficiency of schools is always much dependent upon the adaptation of text-books to the method of study adopted. The literature of the subject of nursing is, in many respects, excellent, but its comparative newness has left much to be desired in the way of improvement of the manuals of study. The text-book now offered has been prepared not merely to give information and lay down rules, but to guide systematic training on a practical subject, and to facilitate thoroughness of school-work. The volume has grown out of a familiar consciousness of the needs and difficulties of nursing, together with the experience of the working teacher, and the practical character it has thus acquired, its excellent method, and the clearness and directness of its style, show that in preparing it the author has done an admirable service to her profession. E. L. YOUMANS. June, 1885. CHAPTER CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTORY-NURSING AND NURSES THE SICK-ROOM-THE HOSPITAL WARD III. BEDS AND BED-MAKING-Bed-soreS V.-RESPIRATION-VENTILATION-WARMTH VI. THE OBSERVATION OF SYMPTOMS. A TEXT-BOOK OF NURSING. CHAPTER I. Necessity for the instruction of nurses-The nurse's work-Qualifications of a nurse-The duties of a nurse-to herself to the doctor-to the patient. THERE are few, especially among women, who will not at some time in their lives be called upon to officiate in the capacity of nurses; fewer still who will not at some time have occasion to be grateful for the ministrations of a skillful and efficient nurse, or annoyed by the blunders of an awkward and incompetent one; and yet it is only within a comparatively short time that the importance of special and thorough training for such work has become generally appreciated. There has been no opportunity for the acquirement of such education, however much individuals may have desired. and felt the need of it. Until within a few years, the nursing in our hospitals was committed to the hands of women of the lowest, often of the criminal, classes, chosen without regard to character or capacity. It was held a degrading occupation, which no self-respecting person would voluntarily adopt; and "Sairy Gamp" was recognized, not as the amusing creation of a novelist, but as the common type and representative of the nursing class. |
