Sick-nursing essentially a woman's mission : being an inaugural lecture on the qualifications for and the conduct of sick-nurses, delivered at the opening of the new school of nursing in Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, on May 1, 1877 / by Dyce Duckworth.

Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sick-nursing essentially a woman's mission : being an inaugural lecture on the qualifications for and the conduct of sick-nurses, delivered at the opening of the new school of nursing in Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, on May 1, 1877 / by Dyce Duckworth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Believing then, as I do, that you are satisfied with the sphere of work you have voluntarily chosen, permit me now to welcome you here, and to wish you, in the name of all the hospital authorities and officers. God- speed in your efforts. It has been truly remarked that nurses, like poets, ‘ are born, not made.’ This means that some women are more naturally fitted to be muses than others. Feminine and maternal instincts vary in women. But we lately saw that it was the rule for most women to possess this fitness or faculty, although it was more pronounced in some than others. Hence it may fairly be believed that the instinct is capable of being aroused and cultivated in the majority of your sex.^ It is true that men have often made, and do make, good muses in default of women, and this is especially true of soldiers and sailors. This is because the latter are trained to habits of discipline and obedience, and the fact belies the common assertion as to the hard- heartedness of men brought up in such rough schools. The rule is, however, that nursing is distasteful to men, who naturally yield to the gentler sex the more tender and delicate ministrations required by the sick. ^ ‘ We assume that, because God has bestowed a talent, it does not need cultivation; that it may be left to chance; that it is sure to come forth, and to exercise itself in a reasonable manner whenever there is occasion for it. I believe women are doing the greatest injustice to one of the treasm'es of which God has made them stewards when they say so. The born painter and musician is the one who takes most pains to cherish the powers which he finds latent in him; the most thoroughly born muse will, I conceive, watch her endowment with the same care.’ Op. cit., p. 15.