Paragraphs From a Medical Council by L. A. H.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 12, 1914

Paragraphs From a Medical Council

By L. A. H.

THE following is the final collection of brief statements made by various persons present at a council of medical workers, at Takoma Park, D. C., as referred to in the two preceding articles:—

Missionary Work in and out of the Sanitarium

All the workers, domestics and others, should have some training in missionary work.

We should recognize that persons coming to the sanitarium are in our charge. We have a responsibility.

All persons do not need the same kind of physical treatment, nor do all need the same spiritual help.

We should not leave all the responsibility of spiritual labor with the chaplain. We should all be chaplains in a sense.

The opportunity of the nurse for doing missionary work is unusual, with her close and constant association with the patient, and her knowledge of special needs.

Nurses should be encouraged to do personal work for their patients. There is scarcely a patient that does not need special help in some way.

The worker who improves the opportunities for missionary work in the sanitarium will be prepared to do it in the field.

There are many sick persons out in the field. They are just as susceptible of being reached as are the sick in an institution.

The need of missionary nurses in the field should be recognized by those in position to employ them, and our sanitariums should be prepared to supply them.

It should be that conferences could use nurses when they are graduated just after as they can use the graduates of our colleges.

The slack season can be well improved in sending out companies of workers. This helps both to keep the workers busy and to secure patients for the institution.

A good plan of field work is to send nurses to neighboring churches to spend Sabbath and Sunday in school of health work.

Experience in field missionary work should be given the nurse while in training. This is essential both for good institutional work and for work after graduation.

Companies of nurses can be sent into adjoining towns to do missionary visiting, finding places where they can render help, circulating literature, and doing good in various ways.

An excellent thing is to follow up school of health work or health lectures with house-to-house canvassing for “Ministry of Healing.”

Names of persons can be secured at schools of health who can afterward be visited by individual workers, following up the interest already created.

Territory might be divided among the workers for the purpose of thorough follow-up work. All families should be visited. Everything should be done to bring them into the truth.

If institutional work calls a nurse from field work, let some other nurse take the territory and continue the work already begun.

If possible, an experienced leader should be secured to take charge of companies of workers. Instruction should always be given those doing field work, that it may show the best results in every way.

A real missionary meeting should be held each week, at which the workers will report cases of interest, progress made, or help needed. Such a meeting will be an encouragement in helping others get to work.

All workers do not have the same qualifications. One may be able to give good Bible readings, another can sing well, another has a spirit of prayer, another may know how to read good selections in a winning way. All can do something. All should do something in missionary effort.

With a live missionary interest and a keen appreciation of what different workers can do, there can be such a cooperation between workers that the talent of all will be utilized and a great work be done. Such a family is a happy one.

A spiritually minded head nurse can help greatly in selecting suitable ones to do certain things. She should be discerning, and should be on the lookout for cases of need, and watchful to find the right person to render help.

If a patient goes a long time without improvement, something special is probably done. When a patient goes a long time without being helped spiritually, something special should be done. Perhaps a special prayer season is needed, or a change of nurses.

Any effort that is dependent upon the inspiration derived from Bible study cannot be carried on in a formal or mechanical manner. All success in Bible teaching depends on the ability to develop individual interest in the study of the Scriptures.

The Bible has an important place in our training of nurses. It must be made the real basis of a personal experience to each worker, and all Bible study must be conducted in such a way as to stimulate and maintain a healthy spiritual growth.

The business side of the training school should be conducted so that students will give an equivalent for all they get. They should also get all they pay for. The patients should not have to pay for what the students receive.

In a large family there is usually a spirit of freedom with things. Water is allowed to run, electric lights are left burning, linen is freely used, etc. When students are trained to realize that everything has a value, there is less inclination to be wasteful or extravagant.

Students should be allowed to make their complaints, but it should be before the proper persons. If they know that they are expected to state their grievances before the house committee, they will minimize their complaints, as a thing sounds different when it comes to telling it before a committee. L. A. H.