“Following one’s vocation should, and does, bring success. Dr. Herschel feels confident that you are on the right trail and that training will develop an inherited talent for nursing.”
“A high compliment truly, and one that I appreciate. Nursing is, indeed, a sacred calling, a calling that requires rare gifts; but I sometimes wonder if all nurses fully appreciate its true significance. It surely does not mean that we have forsaken the world and all its pleasures for the sweet joy of ministering to the afflicted, in other words, that the woman is wholly absorbed in the nurse. I see the force of Dr. Herschel’s argument which is, that nursing is neither an order, a trade, nor a means of earning a livelihood; but that it must ultimate in a profession filled almost exclusively by women. Our American hospitals, though second only to those of England in point of equipment for the training of nurses, are still imperfect. From a small beginning actuated by humane motives, of necessity, nursing has assumed vast proportions. Like all other avenues of human activity, the bad crops out with the good and many a conscientious nurse suffers for the sins of one who has crept in. Then, too, expert training is a necessity. Now a good registration law would materially lessen many existing evils. Any nurse who has earned the right to affix ‘R. N.’ to her name would be known as one who had met the requirements of such law and was legally responsible thereto.
“‘New occasions teach new duties,
Time makes ancient good uncouth;
We must upward still and onward,
Who would keep abreast of truth.’”
“True,” replied Hernando, “these are the days of expert training. The doctor’s assistant must keep his pace but I am sure you will agree with me that while nineteenth century conditions may teach nurses ‘new duties,’ it behooves them all to remember that their distinctly feminine attributes, gentleness, tenderness, sympathy, may still be retained and yet keep ‘abreast of truth.’”
“Yes, indeed; we might learn a lesson from Reuben. He and his race are the ‘natural nurses.’”
“And through the sympathy which nurses only can give, they touch the chord which even a mother cannot reach. Dr. Herschel’s discovery is the marvel of the age; but I know that without Reuben’s help, my case would have been a failure.”
“Sometimes,” said Eletheer hesitatingly, “I think that Reuben possesses the ‘sixth sense.’”