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.

    26/408 (page 10)
    date will have to wait a few months for a vacancy. Very probably, too, she will be compelled to apply at several hospitals before being accepted ; she must be prepared for this from the beginning and guard against getting dis¬ couraged by one or two failures. There is always a niche for the woman with a true vocation. Advice for Older Women in Taking up Nursing. After thirty it is not very easy to obtain a three years’ course of training. The entire subordination required of the probationer is less easy for older women to accept with a good grace, and hence matrons as a rule prefer younger women as probationers. Moreover, if the training is not completed till about thirty-five the best period of work is curtailed to little more than ten years. For this reason, if a woman wishes to be trained later in life than usual, it is better for her to take up midwifery, or obtain a year’s training in district work and become a village nurse, or take up work in a convalescent home or sana¬ torium, where probationers are much in request for slight training, and where various posts, not needing a fully trained nurse, are to be had. Very interesting work offers among defective children and epileptics, and it is far better to specialise in this way than to compete at a dis¬ advantage as regards age in a crowded profession. Free training for a less period than three years in a general hospital recognised as a training school is not to be had. Probationers must either go through the whole course or pay, generally at the rate of a guinea a week, for their training. But there are many special and cottage hospitals which give one or two years’ training, and such training, though it will not prove a passport to any of the higher nursing posts or to good private work, will fit the nurse for work in convalescent homes and other institutions. It is the greatest possible mistake to believe that a little train¬ ing will place a variety of lucrative chronic posts at the nurse’s disposal. There is great competition for all such posts, and as a rule they are very poorly paid.