RE HOSPITAL NURSES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1354, 3 February 1912, Page 14

RE HOSPITAL NURSES.

Sir,—ln your issue of this day a letter j 6igned "Fair Play" calls for somo reply. I I wish fx) remind your readers of the truo position, from long and intimate acquaintance with the circumstances referred to, through regular visitation of occasional friends being there, but I have alto teen a, regular hospital visitor. It is true the nurses' task is a, serious one, and not a largo percentage of women are adapted to it. Those who take it on are entitled to respect, and ire will allow credit for the best motives. The calling is a noble one, and, to be successful, sacrifices must be made; the same trials await the young physician and surgeon. It would be absurd to say, taking the last hundred who applied for training as nurses, that they wero all alike promising. All depends on the applicant's own self. Her temperament, health, mental outlook, and manner, as well as general intelligence and adaptability. Patience and a chcerful and cheering disposition go a long way. Tho patient is entitled to this, and patients of course are quick to observe. They aro distressed if there is not sympathy in the nursing, and every doctor knows this. Much more, one of Dr. Hardwick Smith's wide experience, and it places his other remarks even higher, that ho expressed himself so thoroughly to tho several points of his subject. In all that ho said there is not a shade of harshness that I can see. Nurses are but human, and want recreation of some kind. However all this lrjiy be managed, the. fact remains that on. the shoulders of the medical superintendent and the matron rests the responsibility of producing'; the best results, humanly speaking, and I am persuaded from what I know of the matron and himself, they are more than pleased when the nurses bend themselves to climb the ladder and become imbued with the true nursing instinct, which will bring credit to themselves and the hospital, as well as bo a real blessing to the patients, and consequently to themselves and their countrv.—l am, etc., VISITOR. P.S.—There is now a lawn tennis court for the nurses' usfe, and they seem to enjoy it, I am glad to say,