Illustrated lectures on nursing and hygiene / by R. Lawton Roberts.

  • Roberts, R. Lawton.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Illustrated lectures on nursing and hygiene / by R. Lawton Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    with sickness, she may become quite skilful in the duties of nursing, ready and fitted to act in any emergency, taught as she has been in the bitter school of adversity, eagerly sought after by her friends in the hour of need on account of her gentleness and superior knowledge. It is of course quite impossible for all women to leave their homes for two or three years in order to receive a thorough training in one or other of our great hospitals, and thus gain a sound knowledge of nursing. And again, many families in time of illness engage a trained nurse at a fixed salary to tend their sick. The poor, however, cannot afford to pay a trained nurse, neither can many others who do not belong, strictly speaking, to the “poorer classes.” Moreover, many well-to-do people have a great objection to trained nurses, preferring to do the best they can without bringing a stranger into the sickroom. I think now, from what I have said, you will easily seethe greatness and the excellence of the work which the St. John Ambulance Association is carrying out. The Association offers to all women who will accept of its teaching a simple but sound course of instruction in nursing and in the laws of health. To enable you to understand such matters, it is needful for you to know something of the structure and functions of the human body, and this formed part of the First Aid course, which you all attended, and in which you all proved successful when tested by examination.1 The Association course of instruction consists of lectures on nursing and sanitary arrangements, and practical teaching as well in such matters as poultice-making, application of the roller bandage to different parts of the body, use of the thermometer, changing sheets, and bed-making. The know- ledge of the pupils is tested by an examination after the course, the successful candidates obtaining a nursing certifi- cate of proficiency. The Association Nursing Course may be easily attended by those who have no wish to become professional nurses, and 1 The Authorities (of St. John Ambulance Association) arc rightly of opinion that the Advanced or Nursing Course cannot be properly com- prehended unless the First Aid Course has been successfully gone through beforehand ; hence a strict rule is laid down, that “ No person is allowed to enter for examination in these subjects (Nursing and Hygiene) unless they have obtained the certificate of ‘ First Aid to the Injured.’ ”