Health Reform and Nurses' Training-Schools by Belle Wood-Comstock, M. D.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 4, 1913

Health Reform and Nurses' Training-Schools

By Belle Wood-Comstock, M. D.

I HAD not been long in training-school work before I realized the fact that our nurses in training had very little respect for, or appreciation of, the great principles of health reform which the Lord has given us, and for which our sanitarium system stands.

I found that most of them came into our sanitariums having no idea of healthful dress, either wearing corsets or, leaving them off because they understood that they were not allowed in the institution, wearing their garments with no system of proper adjustment; so that, easily discouraged, they soon slipped back into their corsets, if great pressure was not brought to bear to keep them from it.

I soon noticed, also, that it was considered nothing very wrong — in fact, a rather good joke and a most enjoyable variation in the monotony of sanitarium life — for them to break over occasionally and get a beefsteak dinner; or, perhaps, in event of a birthday or other festal occasion, an opportunity to indulge in roast chicken — quite a treat, provided it could be done without the knowledge of the faculty.

I also found that many nurses out on outside cases, by indulging, no doubt thoughtlessly, in things not strictly considered health reform even by those only slightly acquainted with our sanitarium system and plan of living, lost the confidence of the people in whose homes they were nursing, these people often sending back for a strictly loyal sanitarium nurse, recognizing in their lack of loyalty to principle an evidence of weakness somewhere. I found that oftentimes our nurses were not letting their light shine before their patients in regard to these things, but that they showed by actions and thoughtless remarks that they considered the principles of health reform of but little importance, — all right for sick people and while in a sanitarium, but not practical for all occasions and conditions.

I noticed that a large percentage of graduate nurses leaving our sanitariums, went out into the world into professional nursing, adhering in almost no degree to sanitarium principles, thereby bringing our whole system of healthful living and rational treatment into disrepute, apparently proving to the people of the world that sanitarium ideas are of little value. If they are of value, why not appreciated and lived out by people trained in such institutions?

I began to realize that young people in our sanitariums had no conception of the true meaning of health reform, but were living it out mechanically while in the institution because it was the line of the least resistance. They were simply going with the crowd. After leaving the sanitarium, they found themselves in different surroundings, more nearly in the line of their natural tendencies, and still drifted with the crowd, and many will continue to do so to their ultimate destruction, for invariably those graduate nurses not living out health reform are the ones who lose their love for all phases of the truth.

I pondered these things; I began to wonder whether or not there was that in health reform that could inspire one to loyalty. Was it worth while? Surely it must be, or the Lord would not have given it to us. Just how important was it? As I studied, I began to see this branch of the third angel's message in a light I had never thought of before. I tried to present it in the proper way to our nurses; endeavored to give them a sense of their responsibility, as sanitarium nurses, to be true to the principles represented by the institution; tried to show them the need of more loyalty among our workers to these great truths in regard to the care of the body.

As I talked to them, making, perhaps, some slight impression upon their minds, a greater light began to break in upon my own. More and more, as I studied and endeavored to teach, I saw the beauty of health reform and the goodness of God in giving it to us; that it was given that our bodies might be

kept in such a condition of health that we should have clear, keen minds, able to grasp spiritual truths; well-poised nervous systems free from irritable, impatient tendencies; and physical strength to do well the work given us to do; thus reaching a degree of happiness and joy in this life impossible to attain otherwise, and also removing from our experiences the most potent obstacles to our attainment of eternal salvation. I saw that, without a clear conception and the carrying out of health reform, our people could never reach that degree of spiritual perfection necessary for translation; that we never could be the shining lights to the world that we must be to draw souls to this truth.

It came to my mind more forcibly than ever before that the people thronged after Christ, not because he forgave sins, but because he healed diseases; and that if we as a people are to "arise and shine," we must take advantage of our opportunity to be physically well; and that is what we shall be, every one, if we but follow in the light the Lord has given. Then will the people of the world come to us for what we can give them physically; and, having accepted that, they will be prone to accept all. When we prove to them God's mercy in a physical way, showing them in ourselves, as living examples, the reasonableness of God's physical truths, they will be constrained to listen to the spiritual lessons we can give them.

It is hard for finite minds to grasp spiritual things. Christ ever had to use physical law to illustrate divine truth. So we, as we prove to the world God's love to us in a physical way, shall be able to establish their confidence in God's everlasting mercy and infinite wisdom in things not at first so easily understood. What a depth of mercy, love, and wisdom!

I had been reared a Seventh-day Adventist, rigidly taught in health reform, but had never understood it. I began to understand now wherein we had failed. I began to see why we found among the ranks of our people such a disregard for laws of healthful living; why these young people coming to us from Adventist homes to enter our training-school lived out sanitarium principles only because they had to; why there was so little love for this provision of the Lord for us in our preparation for his coming. They did not know. They had not seen. And how could they ever know or understand if our sanitarium workers went through a sanitarium experience and training, coming out blindly with eyes unopened? how could they ever grasp it if the ones who must be their educators did not see?

Our nurses must be inspired; with all their young blood and the enthusiasm born of consecration, they must take the message to our people in a way that it has never been taken before; and in the taking of it they will see. They may begin in the dark, but in the end they will praise the Lord for a new vision.

BELLE WOOD-COMSTOCK, M. D. (To be concluded)