NURSES AT THE FRONT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2369, 27 January 1915, Page 2

NURSES AT THE FRONT

A correspondent, signing herself "Uncertificated Nuts®, writes: In *The Dominion of January 23, I noticed a paragraph in the Social and Personal Notes re unqualified nurses, whioh, I think, should not pass without comment. It seems to me an affront direct to those .heroic women who have repaired to the seat of war in the hope of mitigating the sufferings of onr bel- - soldiers of the Empire. We are told those women "are seriously interfering with the employment of regular nurses"; "It was so in Brussels at the start; it is the same now in France"; "Nurses go out to attend the woundea who have no earthly qualification"; comprising "what has been called the plague of women"; "It is astonishing that the authorities do not step in and insist on a high standard of qualified tion." Now, it appears to me that tho vocation of nursing is natural to every true woman, and is an inherent part of her nature, neither acquired by training nor put on with a cap and apron. Speaking- as a mother who in her own family has fought death on many an occasion, bringing back her dear ones from the brink of the grave without the assistance of a so-callcd trained nurse, but depending on those natural gifts of the Creator- "womanly patience and- intelligence," with sympathy for suffering, it seems to me out of place that any woman, should be asked to forgo her vocation at such a crisis as -tie present. In face of the great demand for nurses at the front, why should the services of women sent by private organisations be undesirable? I should like to draw the attention of women to the great example sot us by that noble lady the much-loved Florence Nightingale, "the lady of the lamp," the' ministering angel, the pioneer nurse of battlefields. She considered a nurse was born, not made.' Her heroic story has so fastened itself on the minds of men that she will never be forgotten.. Her work at the Crimea is well known. Her judgment, tenacity, and tact were boundless. . . Her powers of managing others, getting things done, never for personal or petty ends, but solely for the good of humanity, her work in tho cause of sanitation with the aim in view of the prevention of mortality in army, factory, and home, are well known. She possessed such unfailing goodness, and was of so gentle ana retiring a disposition, that she was urged by John Stuart Mill to "come out in the open." Nota bene: When the question of the registration of nurses was raised, the subject was hotly opposed by Miss Nightingale, who only partially admitted that after the lapse of some forty years there might be 6ome utility in the movement. How much would the world have lost had there been a union to bar from the front this noble uncertificated nurse, this pioneer of nurses? The poet says, "Full many a flower is bom to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air" I Let us as women look to it that our sweetness be not wasted, but directed in its natural course to the relief of suffering. This is the prerogative of all good and able women. ..."