The Nurse’s Confession of Faith by Dr. Charles Sumner

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 11, 1916

The Nurse’s Confession of Faith

By Dr. Charles Sumner

BEING resolved to devote my life to its utmost useful purpose in behalf of the day and generation in which I live, and believing I can best accomplish this object by a life of service to others, I submit herewith the following as my confession of faith as relates to my sacred calling of ministering to the wants of others:—

I resolve, therefore,—

First, To devote my life, its energies, its capabilities, its hopes, and its results to uplifting the fallen, to healing and helping the afflicted, and aiding in every way I can those who are in sorrow, and those who are striving to make life happier and to lift its social service upon a higher plane of living.

Second, To fit myself by tireless training to still more worthily wear the insignia of my esteemed profession, to the end that I may never bring dishonor or discredit upon so worthy and sacred a calling.

Third, To cultivate every attribute of mind and heart that may make my ministrations what my ideals so urgently demand that they should be—lofty and all-praiseworthy.

Fourth, To esteem as a high privilege the opportunities that shall be open to me to become a trusted and sympathetic friend in those homes to which I may be invited. May I ever carry into them good cheer and encouragement, and leave only pleasant recollections when my service shall have terminated.

Fifth, To the kind-hearted and helpful physicians with whom it will become my privilege and duty to serve at the bedside of the suffering, I pledge an instant, constant, and faithful service. To serve with them is pleasanter than to command alone.

Sixth and lastly, To serve also in that larger field of the great world’s activities, sharing its joys and its sorrows, its sunshine and its shadows; and these whether in my own or other homes, in my own or other cities, in my native or in other lands, I shall count an equal privilege and honor as compared with all else in my life of service that may have gone before or may come hereafter.

Invoking the aid of the Great Physician, I am therefore resolved truly and faithfully to carry forward to completest fulfilment all these my several resolutions to the end that I may discharge every duty and obligation that may be placed upon me with conscientious fidelity unto the end of my life.— Dr. Charles Sumner, in Bulletin of Iowa State Board of Health.