Hospital Nursing
The " Lancet Commission " on Nursing issued its final Report last week. It makes recommendations that touch the whole life of a Hospital nurse from the time she begins her specialized education till she marries or retires on a pension. No walk in life gives a clearer illustration of a change from vocation to profession than nursing has given during the memory of most of us. Training, efficiency and knowledge have to take the place of devo- tion just as pay takes its place as the motive in becoming a nurse. Of course, there are many exceptions to this sweeping statement, but the patient seldom finds the qualities combined to-day and he suffers from the absence of any of them. It is not, therefore, surprising that the modern nurse demands increased pay, better housing and feeding, greater liberty from supervision off duty, leave to smoke and so on, things that do not affect the patient, and that modern young women have, though neither their mothers nor the pre-War nurse had them. The standards of living and of liberty in these matters go up and we need not grudge it, if we can pay. The life of a nurse is still hard enough to weed out the unworthy.
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