Every woman is by right of her sex a nurse, but every woman is by no means a good nurse. To be a really good nurse requires a great many qualities and a certain amount of knowledge which many have not got. Nursing—even nursing one’s dearest relative—is a difficult and onerous duty, and the first and most important virtue which must be possessed by nurses is patience.
We call a sufferer a “patient,” but the term would be better applied to the nurse. For the good nurse is patient when she could, if she willed so, be impatient; but the sufferer makes a virtue of necessity when he is patient—and very often he is by no means patient.
The second virtue required is kindness. Oh, always be kind when you are nursing an invalid. It is here where an invalid’s relatives are more desirable than paid nurses. It is a most brutal thing to be unkind to an invalid. All the knowledge of nursing in the world is not worth half so much as patience and kindness.
In the course of our professional duties we have become acquainted with many nurses, including some of the most famous of the time. And if you ask us what is the chief difference between these best nurses and the ordinary probationers, we answer without hesitation, “They are more kind and patient.” Of course they are more skilled, more experienced, and—take it to heart—more obedient; but kindness is their chief characteristic.
The nurse must always be absolutely obedient to the physician, and she must carry out his directions to the letter, and neither add to nor deduct from his treatment. It is not only the good nurse who is obedient. A woman who departs from the mandates of the physician is an encumbrance—nay, more than an encumbrance—she is distinctly detrimental to the health of the patient.
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” especially in medicine. Nurses—I mean certified nurses—have a little knowledge of medicine; and if they lack obedience, their knowledge becomes a very dangerous thing indeed.
If you are patient, gentle and kind, obedient and ready to do your duty, however irksome it may be, and if also you are clean, you will make a good nurse. As regards the knowledge of nursing—well, it really is of very secondary importance! If you are nursing and you are a little doubtful about any point, you have only got to ask the physician, and he will make all clear.
But there are many points in nursing which everyone ought to know. Probably most of you do know them; but repetition will do no harm, for we are all liable to forget.
It is thought by some persons that all advice on nursing should be written by nurses. But here we object. Surely the physician is entitled to say what he requires?
We certainly consider that we have a right to have our say in a matter which concerns us more than anyone else save the patient. We physicians are responsible for the well-being of the sick. We are to blame, and we are blamed, when the results are disastrous. If we employ a careless nurse, and she, by her bungling, thwarts recovery, we are to blame. It is upon us, not upon the nurses, that retribution falls. And perfectly rightly. We do not complain at this. Still, we consider that we have a right to advise those who wish to nurse our patients.