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Medical Convention Report

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 17, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 30.

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Medical Convention Report

By L. A. HANSEN

The Training and Work of Nurses

(Continued)
As already stated, the training of nurses was a subject of considerable study and discussion at our medical conventions. We give here a few more statements from some of the speakers:—
Prof. J. L. Shaw spoke of the postgraduate course for nurses given at the Washington Missionary College. The course emphasizes the evangelical training of nurses, the need of which he had seen manifest in mission fields, where medical workers coming from this country would often be found so lacking in evangelical training that they could not sit down and give an inquirer an intelligent idea of what they believed. In this course special study is given to Bible subjects, with practical experience in doing Bible work under the direction of a Bible worker who has had long experience. She takes the students into the field, and demonstrates in homes how to give Bible readings. Each student is expected to give two readings a week. Thus students not only receive, but learn how to impart.
Besides the training in Bible work, these students receive such instruction in history and English as they may need. Advanced work in physiology, temperance, and hygiene is also given. They spend some time at the Washington Sanitarium Dispensary-Hospital, which offers special advantages in obstetrics and various lines of hospital and dispensary work and training as visiting nurses. Professor Shaw spoke of the importance of having nurses in mission fields understand obstetrics. He had seen nurses return from India to England to take a course in obstetrics. The opportunity for getting such instruction and training in connection with the work of our postgraduate course is especially good.
Elder Meade MacGuire deplored the fact that so many of our young people are lost to the work, and suggested that a very definite work be outlined for them in the Bible course, thus enabling them to begin the giving of Bible readings while still in school.
Dr. W. A. Ruble gave a brief statement of the reasons offered for eliminating some of the training schools now in existence. With so many schools bidding for students, and entrance requirements so low, it is difficult to get a sufficient number of students for a good class without accepting those who are too young or are poorly prepared.
Dr. John Reith pleaded for a careful consideration of a raised standard for our nurses’ course, then a careful watch on the finished product, that they be directed into the work and not lost to it.
Dr. B. B. Bolton suggested that the question of raising standards might be settled by State authorities, who are carefully examining schools and demanding a high standard, which would eventually eliminate some schools.
Dr. D. H. Kress saw light in the idea of having nurses well trained in Bible work. This would make them of great help in tent work. He said: “I should never have a Bible worker connect with my work unless she were a trained nurse, who could go into the homes of converts and teach them how to live.”
Dr. W. E. Bliss said we should use greater care in selecting student nurses. Sanitariums are not reform schools. If students with proper Christian experience are selected, and this experience is kept active, the nurses will turn out right. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that many nurses who have been graduated are not now in the work. Conferences cannot be blamed; for they do not know how to use nurses who do not have the proper training.
Dr. H. W. Miller spoke of the importance of having nurses who can be a real help in giving the truth to patients. If possible, students should have Bible work before taking the nurses’ course. On coming to the sanitarium, they should regard it as a missionary field, and be prepared to do their part in working it. It requires mature minds to deal with the sick, and young girls should not be asked to manage some of the trying cases met with. Nurses with proper qualifications would give character to the work.
Elder W. T. Knox believed that some sanitariums were conducting training schools at a disadvantage to themselves as well as to the nurses. Some institutions do not have sufficient work to give the nurses ample experience in all the lines required to qualify them properly. If we should send out inefficient nurses as properly trained graduates, we should be dishonest with the public. Neither would it be honest to give the nurses a training that does not properly qualify them. We should determine what is the right thing to do, and do it.
Dr. H. A. Green, in speaking of the time given to training men nurses, said that he believed men should receive as thorough training as women; that the basis of training should be the same in all sanitariums. A man should not beput in a responsible position—in charge of the bath rooms, for example—unless he has had a full training.
Dr. J. D. Shively felt anxious as to what should be done to give men nurses employment after they have been graduated. He knew of several very able men nurses who were finding it difficult to secure employment. Most people, he said, prefer women nurses, and men nurses are coming to be less and less in demand.
Elder A. T. Robinson suggested that if the number of training schools were reduced, some sanitariums would have to use graduate help. He asked the relative cost.
It was stated in reply that two or three sanitariums have tried the plan of using graduate help, and have found it less expensive than to conduct training schools.
Dr. H. W. Miller: “We must train nurses for the purpose of working in this cause, and not for the purpose of receiving twenty-five dollars a week. Then our sanitariums can employ them at proper wages. It is worth something to get a preparation that fits one to work in this cause. While we hear of many being lost to the cause, we find many who have taken the nurses’ course who are now in other lines of responsible work. We should encourage our men nurses to believe there is a place for them.”
Dr. E. D. Haysmer said he believed we need not hold out as an inducement to young men that they can find employment as nurses after graduation, but we can let them know that the training is an asset to them in evangelical work.
Dr. Green: “Theoretically it may seem an easy thing to run a training school, to take promiscuously about fifty young people and train them for the work. I believe it is the hardest kind of work. I find it easier to handle graduate nurses. There is need of our working out a uniform system of training for our schools.”
Dr. L. A. Sutter spoke of the few nurses prepared to teach others or carry responsibilities. Nurses should be efficient in domestic lines in order to be fully qualified; they should be familiar with contagious diseases, obstetrics, care of children, fever cases, etc.
The following recommendations, dealing with training school work, were adopted:—
“Whereas, The larger number of the members of a sanitarium training school are young women, and inasmuch as the objective field of the graduate nurse is in connection with Bible work or other lines of evangelical effort, therefore,—
“Resolved, That we petition our local and union conferences to regard the sanitarium as a part of their legitimate field; and, where the institution is large enough to justify it, provide a suitable lady worker to give workers instruction and practical training in Bible work, and to hold Bible readings with patients.
“Resolved, That, as a convention, we favor the recommendations adopted at the last General Conference, relating to the standards and course of instruction to be given in our nurses’ training schools, and recommend their adoption by our sanitariums in this field.
“Resolved, That we suggest to the North American Division Conference an increase in the entrance requirements for the nurses’ training course, from nine to ten grades.
“Resolved, That we favor the recommendations adopted at the fall council of 1914, relative to the limiting of the number of nurses’ training schools, and the affiliation of the other training schools operated by the organized work with these designated schools.
“Resolved, That we favor the most careful training of nurses in domestic work. It is our belief that no woman can be a well-trained nurse unless she has been well drilled in the principles of cooking, laundry work, and care of the house; and we believe that all our sanitarium training schools should have a uniform standard for domestic training, making the advancement of nurses depend on their proficiency in domestic service.
“Resolved, That the matron be a member of the training school faculty, and that she teach domestic science; that the matron be under the supervision, in this teaching, of the superintendent of the training school; and that so far as possible, the matron be a graduate nurse.
“Resolved, That we recommend that those graduate nurses who desire to take further training in medical missionary work, be advised to attend the school at Loma Linda or the nurses’ training school at Washington.
“Resolved, That we have a superintendent for each training school who shall be a registered nurse.
“Resolved, That we advise all institutions conducting a training school to establish a dispensary or other facilities in a city where nurses can be trained in obstetrics, emergency work, children’s and contagious diseases, as well as in evangelical field work; and we recommend that such work be under the direct charge of a physician.”
L. A. HANSEN.