The Terms "Nurse" and "Probationer"

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XVI, Issue 3, 1 July 1923, Page 97

The Terms " Nurse" and " Probationer "

It has frequently been said that the term "nurse" is used in so many different connections and for so many varying classes of workers, that it does not properly describe the qualified attendant on the sick. In the first sense it is to "nourish/-' and in that way indicates the act of a mother feeding' her infant; it also means to "cherish," "take care of," and indicates the ordinary care of a maid attendant in charge of young children. It is applied to persons who are attendants to doctors in their consultingrooms, who open the door, usher in the patients and make appointments, and whose occupation — though in a few cases some of the duties of a trained nurse mav be included — in the ordinary case are not engaged in any way in sick nursing*. It is also used in connection with dental work, and quite recently in this country a number of young women have been trained and are being trained to carry out minor dental operations, and are styled "dental nurses," whereas "dental assist-

ants" would more properly describe them. The difficulty is to find any other term ivhich shortly and adequately describes a trained nwrse. The French have even adopted the term from the English instead of their rather cumbersome "gardemalade," and in France, as it is not used for so many other classes of people, it is more distinctive. The army designation of "sister," applied to all ranks of nurses in the service, is not quite so abused, though it has been for many ages a term used in the Catholic Church for nuns and in Protestant churches for deaconesses and church visitors. Even more than "nurse" is the term " probationer ' ' applied indiscriminately to all and sundry. There are "probationers ' ' serving a term for ill-doing ; there are "probationers'' on trial for their suitability as pupils to be accepted as trainees for the nursing profession, and frequently they continue to be so called for far longer than the ordinary three months' term. After the three months

they should be styled pupil nurses, this implying- that they are under instruction and studying 1 for their profession. Why should girls serving in private hospitals be termed " probationers?" They are not on "probation" for any future teaching in nursing, although in some eases they may go on to public hospitals and eventually qualify. The proprietors of private hospitals are to blame for applying this name to girls they engage for the

domestic work of their hospitals and for the ordinary fetching and carrying of the meals and the minor duties which may be assigned to them. In Government hospitals, the designation "hospital aid" has been applied to those girls who are doing this very useful and necessary work, and appears to cover any duty they may be given, and at the same time does not encroach on the domain of the girl who is qualifying for the profession of nursing.