Vol. 60, 1909 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

326 THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL JOURNAL.
reluctance that I am forced to tins adiuis- add, so far as an independent and self-resion.
Foolishly closing one's eyes to an specting medical staff is concerned. Xovv,
unpleasant fact, however, will not benefit what has been the outcome? The net rethe
matter in the least. The naked truth, suit of the system of training evolved by
sooner or later, must be met, the causes for these women after three decades or more of
its existence ascertained, and the remedy absolute control is appalling. The type of \
applied, if one be found. Admitting the nurse as depicted in the beautiful charac-
fact, as we must, therefore, what is the ters of Florence Nightingale and Dorothea :
cause of this remarkable reaction in popu- Dix no more exists, save in rare and iso- (
lar sentiment toward a calling which should lated instances, than does today the noble !
command only the profoundest respect and red man of Cooper's fascinating tales. In j
heartiest sympathy of everyone? her place we find ourselves confronted by a I
There is but one explanation, and it is to cold-blooded autocratic fraternity or close j
be found in the attitude of the trained nurse corporation, smothered in red-tapeism that I
herself. In making this statement I wish apparently would sacrifice a life rather than i'
it to be clearly understood that I refer to break some inflexible and arbitrary petty ;
the t ained nurse as a class, and not to her lavv, whose main object appears to be com- '.
indiv .dually, for I well know that there are mercialism, and from which it would seem i
many noble and excellent women engaged that almost every sentiment of humanity I
in th is humane vocation who are radically had been obliterated. This organization is t
and practically opposed to the autocratic dominated and completely overshadowed i
bearing of those fellow-women who are by a few forceful spirits, for the most part
bringing down upon themselves and their imported from other lands, women of un- !
calling the righteous indignation and re- doubted and unusual executive and organ- i
sentment of a long-suffering people. izing ability, who, it would seem, have i
The attitude to which I refer, and which thoroughly subdued and cowed the vast i
I shall presently elaborate, is intolerable in majority of the girls trained under the sys- '
its every respect. It can be traced largely, tem they have devised. In no other way J
if not altogether, to one chief source, namely, can be found an adequate explanation for i
the malevolent influence very commonly the remarkable submission displayed by .
exerted by the imported head-nurse upon these girls under injustices that stir to the I
the probationers and older girls in the train- very utmost the spirits of those who acquire I
ing schools. I recognize that this is a start- even a faint insight into the matter,
ling statement, but I am speaking with a If you will, inquire of any observant phy- ;
knowledge of things as they are, and I am sician who has been associated with these i
prompted to do so with but one object in training schools in whatever capacity, and i
view—the befriending of the nursing fra- he will, if sincere, assure you that the im- i
ternity. The welfare of this noble and very ported head nurse has usurped an authority j
necessary calling is being jeopardized by that is more absolute in proportion than j
defects in the course of training that can that assumed by the autocrat of all the
be, and must be, promptly righted if the Russias. She domineers over the girls in
growth of the popular antagonism to the training in a manner such as a similar
trained nurse would be arrested. There- nnmber of young men would not counteti-
fore, the mincing of matters will not do. I ance for a moment. (One illustration will
believe the time is ripe for a bold, plain answer. The daughter of a leading phystatement
of facts. sician of a city of central Pennsylvania |
T/ie Imported Head Nurse. when slightly indisposed one morning wj
It stands to reason that those who are, peremptorily ordered by her foreign chief
and have been, in control of the training to eat her "porridge" or leave the tableschools
for nurses throughout the country command which she was woman enough to
from the time of their establishment, must disregard until she had taken her coffee),
be responsible for the development of the She reserves to herself the right to allot to
system in vogue, its defects as w-ell as its the matriculates separate and distinct cacommendable
features. This is a logical reers according to her personal whims ;
and necessary conclusion. It is also a well fancies, and likes and dislikes, whereby
known fact that almost without exception some favored ones profit by an excess, and
in the larger institutions these dominant in- others under the ban of official disfavor
dividuals have been foreign-born and for- suffer from a deficiency, in the practical
eign-bred women, who have even, in cer- courses afforded by the schools. She arbitain
stances, so cleverly manipulated the trarily curtails or prolongs the course in
governing factors of the hospitals in ques- training to suit her personal plans or to
tion as to include under their supremacy regulate the excess or deficiency in the numthe
superintendentship of the entire institu- ber of matriculates without respect or contion—an
impossible state of affairs, let me sideration for the rights or convenience of
,