Chautauqua School of Nursing - Yearbook (Jamestown, NY)

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Practice at Home THE GHAUTAUQUA It K . The first practical experience of the student is gained in her own' home or among her own friends. Here she can practice virtually all the procedures used in nursing. For instance, expert- ness in bed-making for the sick can be gained with a voluntary patient in health, ability to 'take temperature, to read the pulse, to measure and administer medicines, to change the cloth- ing of a helpless patient, to prepare food for the invalid- ability in these and a very large number of other duties of the nurse is acquired at the student's leisure and convenience and under such conditions that she can go over the various procedures again and again until she has absolutely mastered them. Then, when a student trainedlunder our method goes into the sick-room she finds there is nothing with which she is not as a rule thor- oughly familiar. If the case is unfamiliar or if it demands knowledge out of the ordinary, there is the physician to advise her, and with her preparation she is in a position to carry out her instructions. ' i I This is the way one student became prohcient by practice at home: T ' ' 'My mother was my patient sometimes and I used to put her in bed and pretend she was sick, taking her temperature and pulse, and making out the report just as 'if the ph sician were to call and see it. In this way I also learned how to make tlie bed with a patient in it. - At times m mother would be a helpless patient and I would move her just as thougfi she were really sick. Then again both my mother and my son became my patients in an accident and I would bandage them from head to feet. ' ' Again, in this connection the family-physician or some other physician interested in her welfare is usually ready to offer advice to the young student, and as she progresses in her studies will gladly avail himself of her services and guide her practice in occa- sional charity cases which physicians are sometimes called upon to look after. If she proves herself prohcient it will not be long before he will recommend her on suitable cases with remunera- tion. Simple cases of convalescence, old age, the milder fevers, and the like, can almost always be secured at modest fees, and the physician gladly recommends women of some training to care ' 18' '

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s s l as !! J sci:-iooL OF NURSING L, As all nurses may expect to meet similar conditions, at times in' their work, the helpfulness of these Stories will at once be realized. The following titles of a few indicate in a general way their drift and purpose: t My First Case. a Saving a Child by Artificial Respiration. A Trying Ordeal with a Typhoid Case. My First 'Experience with Physicians. Twins, and Forty Degrees Below Zero. In fact, these stories set forth in the language of the nurse every experience of the sick-room. They are intimate and personal and, as such, encouraging and inspiring to the student-nurse. She learns through these stories what a nurse has done in practically every affection, ailment, sickness, and disease. The personal equation of patient and nurse, of nurse and physician, of physician and patient, is largely dwelt upon. The student receives a collection of these stories at regular intervals, one at a time, each collection containing two or more narratives. . M HOW OUR STUDENTS GET PRACTICE WHAT appears to the student or young graduate to be her most important problem is how to find the opportunity for putting into practice the knowledge she has gained from her studies. This phase of the work has received our closest atten- tion from the outset, and the experiences in this regard of our student-nurses and graduates have added greatly to our ability to assist our students. We find that our students, both before and after graduation, have little or no difficulty in getting practice. This is of 'two kinds: that necessary for experience and confidence and which the student is willing sometimes to accept without any or with small financial returnsg and second, practice in the professional senseg that is, a steady practice at fair remuneration. - ' y 17

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is ,. a s A - C: p scHooL OE NURSING for' such cases. All this applies to the student-nurse before graduation. Such experiences as this under the supervision of a practicing physician is superior to any other training the nurse can receive for private nursing. . Furthermore, there are opportunities for the- ministrations of the student-nurse in her home and among her friends in nursing the simpler ailments in which the services of the experienced nurse are not generally sought. Every one of our students can get this preliminary practice in the various aspects of nursing described and illustrated in-our courses, so that by the time she receives our certificate of gradua- tion, she may have acquired confidence in her ability,' based upon actual experience, and in a great many ,cases have established friendly relations in many homes and with their various physicians. After that, as our graduates have testified, success is merely a question of faithfulness in the performance of her duty as expert assistant in the sick-room. W To assist the graduate in, gaining practice we take up the matter by correspondence with the physician she recommends, advising him fully of the ground she has covered in her studies and her Htness to undertake the care of patients. This plan in conjunction with the plan previously described, soon places the nurse in a fair way to gain a lucrative practice. As Arthur W. Yale, M. D., said in a recent article, Every physician is only too thankful to Write in his address book the name of a nurse upon Whom he can thoroughly rely. f f-AX .L mm unsg . f c -'iw up--' it 1 t.t 1 if .H A -ca isj if' iill 5 ',. '! ,Q X y ,. .muu nip ,ii ,ap 'MUN , 1 . .lil t ' .Y - g . Wg 19