OUR QUERY COLUMN.
We print with great satisfaction the two following answers to the question about the training of nurses. The first tells what is being done in Le Moyne Institute; the second lays down foundation principles.
Training for Nurses.
I note with interest the “query” in the January Missionary relative to the training of nurses. It is but one of many indications of a rapidly growing dissatisfaction with the present system of education in this country. More and more it is coming to be the feeling that education, in its true sense, is not designed, as has been thought in the past, to fit people for “higher positions,” but rather to fit them to make the most of life in the positions they do occupy, and which must, in any event, be filled by some one. To satisfy this most reasonable feeling, more of the things that pertain to practical life must be thought and talked and taught in our schools. It is no doubt a serious question as to how a safe transition can be made from the present highly artificial system to one that will have a more practical bearing on the every-day life of the masses. In this case advice of a similar nature to that which Horace Greeley gave about resumption will prove, at least, the most reasonable. The best and only way to make the change is to change.
But for the query. At Le Moyne School, where we have one almost continuous daily session from 9 A. M. to 3 P. M., at least an hour of this time each day must be given by the pupils to some branch of practical or industrial knowledge. We cannot wait for all the desired appliances in this work, or to have a beaten track pointed out to us. We are beginning with such appliances as are at hand, and we expect to learn from our own experience as well as from other sources; but at any rate in time to earn success.
In the direct line of training nurses, each girl in the school, sixteen years old or over, will devote the industrial hour, for two days in each week, to studies under this head, including special lessons in anatomy, physiology and hygiene. For the present, at least, no text-book is to be placed in the hands of the students. They are to gain their knowledge from lectures, which are to be followed by general and familiar conversation between instructor and pupils on the same subject. Each girl will be required to take notes of the lecture, and to write out what she can of the knowledge imparted. After a subject is completed, each member of the class is required to prepare an essay, putting in the best possible form her knowledge of the entire subject in all its bearings.
This is, in a general way, to effect the theoretical training. We hope to find opportunity to give members of the class at least a little practice: First, in their own homes or circle of friends; second, possibly in the woman’s ward of the city hospital, located near us; third, in private families desirous of forwarding our work; or fourth, among the destitute poor really in need of such services. Our work is to commence with the simpler and more commonly occurring complaints of this section, as colds, accidents that happen often, chills and fever, etc.
I should like to write more fully of our plans as they relate to other industrial matters, but space forbids. We are thoroughly convinced, however, that in this matter of practical teaching, something more effective than “tracts” is required to make sure of accomplishing any great amount of good. We must come to closer quarters in this struggle; it must be made a hand-to-hand conflict. Along our part of the line we should have no fears of success if we could have placed at our disposal the appliances really needed for the work. In the training of nurses, we need and must have a good manikin, a human skeleton, some forms or models of different organs of the human body, etc., etc. Who will come forward and help us to them?
A. J. Steele,
Le Moyne Normal Institute, Memphis, Tenn.
The treatment which preserves health is the best treatment for its recovery. We should lead our pupils to see that wholesome diet eaten at proper hours, and sufficient sleep taken at the time which God appointed for sleep, will impart more physical vigor than any other two agencies; and that a disregard for them is a fruitful source of much sickness, especially among colored people.
Sunlight and pure air are important factors in making the sick well, and keeping the well from being sick. The temperance pledge is also a cheap and safe medicine. A knowledge of the chemistry of food, of digestion, circulation and respiration is important, and may be taught to comparatively young pupils. Nature, like a sensible dame, resents an insult; and sickness is the punishment she imposes to avenge her injuries. Nor will punishment cease until reparation is made.
Amos W. Farnham,
Avery Institute, Charleston, S. C.
We are happy to make mention, which is all it would be proper for us to do in this place, of the book for boys written by Gen. O. O. Howard. Our friends are so largely his friends, that many of them will want to read “Donald’s School Days,” published by Lee & Shepard, of Boston.