THE EXPLOITING OF THE PRIVATE NURSE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9790, 5 March 1910, Page 4

THE EXPLOITING OF THE PRIVATE NURSE.

In the " Ladies' Home Journal," a writer contributes a suggestive paragraph on the 'lack of consideration often shown to trained nurses:— A trained nurse lasts only fifteen years, it is said: then she becomes more or less broken in health. It is a short period of productive usefulness, even at twenty-five dollars a week. And is it necessary? Is it not a fact, especially in private nursing, that the- average nurse is considered as a tireless phenomenon rather than as a human Doing—a woman with all the weaknesses that go with womanhood? Nor is this lack of consideration for the nurse in the average home horn of thoughtlessness or indifference so much as it is of ignorance, or, in some cases, of selfishness. Few people begin to realise the exacting demands of a sick-room; the fearful physical and mental strain, and the great fact that under such conditions and responsibility the need of a quiet hour and physical exercise are more imperative than in almost any other walk in life. It is not in the home of wealth, nor yet in the home of poverty, that the nurse most often breaks down. In the first instance a second nurse can be engaged to help; and in the la6t instance the poor, who know the meaning of hard work and weariness, are usually very reacljr to relieve the nurse. It is in the average home that the strength of the nurse is overtaxed. In such a home a second nurse is beyond the family means; and, although the family themselves may have been almost worn out caring for the patient before calling in a nurse, and although they themselves may need rest, outdoor exercise and a reasonable number of hours of undisturbed sleep, once the nurse arrives it seems to be forgotten that she, too, is human, and that she cannot " go on forever " like Tennyson's " Brook." So the poor girl often " gets along somehow." But howP Until she either drops or is ready to drop. " What are we paying her twenty-five dollars a week for?" say some folks, under the belief that the amount is a small fortune. They overlook the fact, if they choose to he selfish, that the better their eare of the nurse the better her care of tho patient, and the more surely will they get "their money's worth."

These trained nurses are fine girls, friends: hard-working, self-sacrificing, patient, tender. But they are humans: just as accountable to Nature and her demands as is your daughter. The more considerate we are of them the more efficient will be their service; the more personal tenderness will they throw into then - work with our loved one lying ill. They look like angels sometimes in their wnite uniforms, but they are women—daughters loved by some anxious mother, for whom they are generally working. They would last longer than fifteen years if Ave were kinder to them. And, God bless them, they deserve it—these giris in white 1