How to become a nurse : the nursing profession : how and where to train being a guide to training for the profession of a nurse ... is given / edited by Sir Henry Burdett, K.C.B., K.C.V.O.

  • Burdett, Henry C., Sir, 1847-1920
Date:
[1915?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: How to become a nurse : the nursing profession : how and where to train being a guide to training for the profession of a nurse ... is given / edited by Sir Henry Burdett, K.C.B., K.C.V.O. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    rendering discrimination very difficult. An important ex¬ ception may however be made occasionally in favour of “children’s nurses,’’ especially where such candidates have been in the same situation two or more years, occu¬ pying a post of trust and responsibility. Such “children’s nurses ” are often well worth training as hospital nurses, though each application must of course be taken entirely on its own merits. A post as “ mother’s help ” is likely to prove useful, for here experience in practical domestic work can be gained, and the care of infants and young children undertaken. Girls who have occupied such posts usually make better probationers than those previously employed in shops and other houses of business. These last are often—not al¬ ways, of course—untidy, dressy, and deficient in domestic knowledge. The intending candidate may also be advised to lose no opportunity of doing a little practical nursing whenever a near relative or friend requires such services. Many a useful hint as to the management of an invalid can be picked up in the sick room at home and applied later onto the hospital patient, while though the ailment may be nothing more exciting than chronic rheumatism or bron¬ chitis, it will nevertheless be a real object lesson in the care of the sick. A girl who has been the mainstay of a delicate parent: who has managed the household dur¬ ing her mother’s absence : to whom every member of the family invariably goes with cut fingers, headaches, and such like ; who, perhaps, has watched and helped a trained nurse in her own home, and even assisted her in prepar¬ ing for an operation on some dear one : such a girl is necessarily far better fitted for hospital life than one who knows absolutely nothing about illness and homely remedies, who has been in the habit of shirking all re¬ sponsibility, and regards as a distasteful duty any atten¬ tion required from her to a sick relative. Every profession, business, trade or occupation can how¬ ever be turned into a good preparation for the duties of a