The Nebraska Sanitarium and Union College are situated in the same campus, on a slight elevation that commands a view of the surrounding country for ten or fifteen miles in every direction. At this season of the year the country presents a most beautiful picture; for sunshine and rain have come to us in abundance, and the waving fields of grain are fast whitening for the harvest, and soon the reapers will be gathering in the sheaves. This splendid scene spread out before us is a constant reminder of the Master's field already white for the harvest, and the aim and purpose of the Nebraska Sanitarium is to reap the grain in the fruitful field about us, and prepare laborers to go out quickly into other fields.
About eight years ago a small, two-story, wooden building was donated for a sanitarium. With this the institution began its career, and under the blessing of the Lord it has steadily grown until it occupies a brick building consisting of one hundred and twenty rooms. This was secured about three years ago. The first building has served as a bakery and a home for the nurses. The bakery was started in connection with the sanitarium about five years ago. It now has several employees, and is doing a good business.
At present there are about fifty helpers in the sanitarium family. Twenty-five of these are in the training classes, while others are preparing to engage in this work soon. The first nurses' class, which consisted of four members, completed this course three years ago. Since that time three other classes have finished, making a total number of twenty-eight nurses who have been graduated from the training classes. Only three of this number are now working in the institution. The others are scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, and with very few exceptions are all engaged in the medical missionary work. Two of our nurses are now in the foreign field. Another class of eight members held their commencement exercises in the tabernacle here at College View, on the evening of June 30. Their motto is, 'Man's need is God's opportunity, and ours.' One of this class will go to assist in opening the work in Eureka, Cal.; another to labor in the Montana Conference; while another has been invited to connect with the missionary work in New York City. The others will remain at the sanitarium for a while, and as soon as their places can be filled here, they will be ready to answer some of the urgent calls that are coming to us for help.
Two of our nurses are in Wichita, Kan., opening the work there, and plans are now being laid to start treatment rooms in several other large cities. The Lord is now giving us many precious opportunities to open bath rooms and hygienic restaurants in many places, and we are anxious to improve every one of them. We would not, like Israel of old, be 'slack to go to possess the land, which the Lord God . . . hath given' us.
The nurses' course consists of two years' study and practical work, in which the Bible is given a prominent place. There are some advantages to be gained in a small institution; for example, every nurse has abundant opportunity to learn all about the management of the sanitarium in its different departments.
The beginning weeks of the first year are spent in domestic duties during the day, and class work in the evening. The students are taught how to care for the halls, parlors, patients' rooms, dining rooms, and offices. They also spend some time in the laundry, bakery, and kitchen. A thorough course in cooking is given; and when the cook is detained from his work, his place can easily be supplied from the nurses' class.
The girls are required to spend some time in the sewing room, with a competent dressmaker. The practical knowledge thus gained is of great service to the nurses when they find themselves in foreign fields, or in responsible positions in our institutions.
At the close of the first six months the students are usually called to nursing and bath-room work; later on they are sent to the surgical ward, and gain valuable experience in the operating room and in surgical nursing. Our nurses are often sent to the surrounding cities and towns to care for patients under outside physicians. We sometimes have eight nurses out at one time. It seems as if the Lord specially blesses and prospers the work of those who go to the homes of the people, and as the result, seeds of truth are sown in many hearts, and a friendly feeling toward the sanitarium and its work has been left both with the families and with their physicians.
The managers of the sanitarium and the college are endeavoring to unite the work of the two institutions as far as possible. The hydrotherapy classes from the college are invited to the sanitarium bath rooms for their lessons, and here the treatments are demonstrated and discussed, and the students are allowed to treat one another. It often happens that this work can be made practical.
The class during the winter term was unusually large, being composed mostly of special course students. Many of them were canvassers and Bible workers, and the interest taken in the work was indeed gratifying. We trust that much good may result from it.
The interest in medical missionary work is deepening in the Central Union Conference, and earnest efforts are being made to bring our own people into closer touch with our work. It is receiving considerable attention at all the camp meetings in the surrounding States.
The amount of charity work done by the institution has increased to about five thousand dollars a year.
The Lord has richly blessed the Nebraska Sanitarium during the past months. Many of the patients who come are relieved of their physical sufferings, and go away rejoicing in the light and truth they have found here. Kindly interest and mutual sympathy exist among our workers, and many times the Lord comes very near as we seek him together at morning worship, at the Wednesday evening prayer meetings, and in the Sabbath school.
