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

330 THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL JOURNAL
Now let me ask in all good faith, have I "she shall not have the tweuty-five-dollar ^
not proved the friendliness of mv attitude case." Honestly, I think they are right. ,
toward the trained nurse ? I am her friend, The growth of a nurse is naturally, and ;
in very truth. I sympathize with her from should be recognized as a process of evolu- j
the bottom of mv heart. Her life is a hard tion. If there is not this improvement, this ,
one beset with physical perils. Is it any evolution, with the lapse of time, then is |
wonder when we come to consider her pro- there something radically wrong. Therelonged
'immurement in the sick room, the fore I enter a protest—in the kindliest spirit,
constant inhalation of germs and that their I assure you— against the autocracy of those :
noxious, putrefactive products, the loss of trained nurses whose spirit is hard and mer- i
sleep aud the irregularities in her diet— is cenary and whose slogan is do the public j
it any wonder, I repeat, that she so frequent- —good."
ly succumbs to disease or finds it neccessary Lest there be some who think I am uiis |
to seek retirement for protracted periods to taken in this matter, permit me to quote the ;
recuperate her shattered nerves? schedule of prices advocated by these mis i
It is then because 1 am the friend of the taken enthusiasts, and printed m an orgai i
nurse 'that I feel actual regret when I see of the nursing fraternity ( American Jour ;
her yielding to temptations that imperil her nal of Nursing, Vol. Ill, No. 2, page ssh) i
high calling. It is because I am her friend "Acute diseases, $25 per week, matennt' :
that I feel prompted to remonstrate, in a cases, $30 for the first week, $2.-> for sul i
kindly way, with her, when I see her totter- ceeding weeks, unless there are two nurses (
ing over pitfalls that can work her only in- when $2.5 per week each, will be char^^ec
jury aud injustice. And so, when I come for the entire time; nervous cases, S^n pe
to speak to her of some of these faults on week; contagious cases, $30 per week: fo ,
her part, I do so not uncharitably, but with attendance at an operation, or one day' j
a real desire to render her some assistance engagement, $5; from two to six days, ^ i
over the hard places in her career. per day." Then, with a grim sense ol hu ,
T/ie Growth of a Nurse. mor worthy of a Carlyle or a Switt, as i
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The growth of a nurse, therefore, is the special concession the very generous state :
very neccessary and logical subject to which ment is affixed: "No extra charge is I
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1 would now direct your attention. A nurse be made for attending to the body atte
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has acquired her diploma, and is entitled to death."
offer her services to afflicted humanity. I appeal to my hearers. What could h ,
What does she often do? Alas! If you look more cold-blooded and revolting than tin
opposite her name in the nurses' directory As some one has written, 'Arguments ma
in which she is registered, you will find the be brought forward to justify trades- union
startling legend, "For Iwentv or twenty- in the commercial world, but the most cas(
five doltar cases only!" With one stroke hardened and reckless agitatator and strike
she annihilates the vears of experience that would shrink from trading in the blood an
one would deem essential, and leaps at once sufferingsof humanity." If thesamepni
into the seats of the mighty in her profes- ciple should be adopted by the medic;
sion. It matters not that her wiser sister profession and invariably lived up to, th
has been devoting her energits to her call- poor and middle classes would be entirel
ing for five or ten vears, and now claims deprived of medical attendance, save tlii|
her right as a twenty five dollar nurse, afforded by hospitals and eleemosynary ii
Has she not a diploma? Therefore it is her stitutions. No greater instance of clas
privilege to demand the highest remunera- distinction— against which socialism an
tion her profession affords. So she argues, the unions are raising their earnest protes
How many yowws, doctors, think vou, can —could be imagined. Therefore, I beg i
claim five or ten dollars per visit the first my hearers, in the name and for the sal
few vears of their professional careers? of humanity, to concentrate their influem
How'manv surgeons can place the bold- against such commercialism as this.
tvped card upon their mantel-pieces, "$.500 Stale Registration oj Nurses. i
cases only?" I believe the nurse earns all There is one other matter on which I dj
she can get, and even then is not well paid, sire to speak a few words in closing. I ret
But hers is also a humane calling, and to the recent agitation in a number of t!
when see stamps it with a mercenary mark, states on the question of the registration
then she drags it from its high pedestal and nurses. Let me say at the out-start that
wrongs herself and it. I know many phy- do not ^^^"k /he time is ripe for snch
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^, movement on the part of the nursing traU
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sicians who have expressed themselves as ^.^^^ However it may eventuate, today f
unwilling to recommend a nurse who regis- £„gg]. of public opinion points unequivoc:
ters herself in this manner, "if she will ly away from such a procedure as th
not take the fifteen-dollar case," they say, Souud the views of the level-headed int
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