NURSES WHO HAVE STAYED AT HOME

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2954, 18 December 1916, Page 8

NURSES WHO HAVE STAYED AT HOME

Sir,—Now that Christmas is coming our thoughts naturally turn to our men who are aw.ay fighting and to tho nursbs away taking care of them. But aro we remembering with gratitude tho nurses who havo stayed at homo?

Think I Whioh is tho harder 'thing to do ? To sail away to a new country, with bands playing, crowds choering, and their country applauding; or to worlc on quietly at their, posts—no applause, much hard work, not for grate-, fnl. young soldiers, but often for most disagreeable old people?

Some ono may say, "You forgot our army nurses are risking ■ their lives for their country." . True they are. But are not our nurses at homo risking their lives, too? Not in,a dramatic way _ certainly, but simply through fighting fevers and disease, quietly and as a matter of course doing their duty, day after day,, week in, week out, Sundays and Christmas Day, too. True, they aro given a fortnight. or most generously, if they aro nearly worn out, four weeks in the year in which t) rest both mind and body. Do we remember gratefully enough what tlieso nurses aro doing ? The hospitals quite rightly' have open doors for all who are sick.; This means that the very dregs of society as well as the respectable, members are there. And our nurses take care of them all alike. No nurse worth the name makes any difference in manner or attention between her patients. But cli! how hard it is sometimes to remember there is a soul living in tho poor misused and' dirty bodies ■ that come to be cleansed and cured, or patched up as the case may he! Then think, too, of the nurses working in the old people's homes and chronic wards. Does it not need greater courago than most of us possess to work in them? i remember being much struck by a remark made by a sister of a chronic ward|: "It would havo been ' delightfully refreshing if 'one' person had said she felt better this morning." Think what it means to havo to keep bright in such an atmosphere and not only to koep bright but to try to chew others.

Does not this' need iriore courago than that required to go away to new countries _ and work hard, of course, but in stirring, exciting surroundings?. I do not for a moment wish to underrate what our army nurses are doing, but I do want us to appreciate and encourage our nurses who havo stayed at home. God bless them!—l am, etc., A FRIEND.