University of Michigan Medical and Nursing School - Aequanimitas Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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-'lSCi2PEI. Those who are not familiar with all sides of nursing education niav feel that such an emphasis as I have here indicated is absurd and unnecessary. 'I-lowever, one should not lose sight of the fact that the student nurse enters the nursing school a girl and leaves it a woman: she enters with a multitude of fv1111'f11riv,r th aff, but few habits: she leaves the school with Il1CIII.X' f'i.1'UIl' 111117175 and a distinct philosophy of life: she enters extremely plastic and pliable. she leaves it distinctly less plastic and pliable. ' The held of general education has reached a point where the social education of the student is a matter of major importance. Educators have become deeply interested in the whole problem of character development. lf nursing schools are to continue to admit to its ranks eighteen or even seventeen-year-old girls and expect to train these girls in three years to meet all kinds of social dmands upon graduation. should not the nursing school follow in the footsteps of general educa- cation and set up such a program as will more perfectly socialize the students entrusted to their care? If the held of general education has seen the tremendous worth-whileness of such an emphasis in education, would it not be reasonable to suppose that such an emphasis might be of some value in the educating of the nurse? However, not until that time when hospital authorities and physicians alike will come to a realization that they are profoundly affecting the cheracter develop- ment of the student nurse either for better or for worse, not until that time when they full realize that the hospital is building women and citizens. as well as nurses. can we expect to begin to produce a more satisfactory type of nurse. Education for the nurse can not remain so narrowly vocational if the nurse of the future is to be an improvement over the nurse of today. The nurse's concommitant learning is at fault, not her primary learning alone. lt is the job of the nursing school to build into its students proper social habits. attitudes and ideals, as well as to teach them the mechanics of the profession of nursing. We who are associated with nursing schools must, with other educators. advance to that third position. lying between the camp of vocational education and the camp of cultural education, and I1'bc1'aIi:1' education. at the same time infusing it with social efficiency and purpose. The objectives of nursing education must become seven-fold if it is to justify itself: preparation for citizenship, not merely preparation for nursing- must be its goal.

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. '- SCf2I.PEI. The 1110113 imaginative girl should find her satisfactions in dramatics, group- singing. a school orchestra. visits to art galleries, concerts, and the like. Plays, poetry and good fiction should be easily accessible to students in a well-balanced library. The students should also be kept in touch with the trend of events in the outside world through a selection of proper periodicals and by frequent lectures on current events or interesting social problems. The average nurse is woefully ignorant of matters outside of her own little narrow world and efforts should be made to make her more familiar with and interested in the doings of the large world about her. Religious activities of all sorts should be necessarily encouraged. No greater calamity could befall the girl from the small town or rural districts, where religion and church attendance plays so great a part in the life of the community, than that she should fail to make immediate contacts with a church in the new environ- ment she is entering, an environment which will throw upon her greater social strains than she has ever known before. .-X morning service of worship is a highly desirable thing in a school of nursing. Such movements as the Guild of St. Barnabas. Young lYomen's Christian .'Xssociation, etc., should be maintained and encouraged. The social amenities of life should not be neglected if the student nurse is to learn how to meet successfully ce1'tain social situations that are sure to arise not only in her own social life but also in the pursuit of her professional activities. The nurse must of necessity have some degree of social training if she is not to prove offensive to her patients and associates. Carefully planned parties, teas, dances and receptions give her a practical experience in making her socially accep- table. Such training must be thought of merely as a means to an end, not an end in itself, of course, in the practice of her profession. It has been aptly said that T'aint what yer teach a feller but it's what yer larn 'em that counts Y and there is a world of truth in this statement. The student must live. not merely be taught, proper social habits and attitudes. Therefore, the unwritten curriculum, or social program, must be skillfully handled if it is to bring about any improvement in the social attitude of the student nurse. The presence of someone who is not only deeply interested in girls, but who is more or less an expert in social dynamics, as well, is one of the most important factors in developing the character of the student. Many pages could be used to discuss the qualihcations of the person who is to direct the extra-curricular program, but in the final analysis this individual must possess two outstanding characteristics, namely, a rich social mind built up through a variety of social experiences, and an abiding love and faith in youth. Another method of providing an opportunity for the student to lim' proper habits, etc.. lies in the proper functioning of student self-government movements. lt is essential that the students be given rm! responsibilities if the students' attempt at self-government is to succeed. Any movement toward the establishment of such valuable experience in building inner-control is doomed to failure if students are given only control of minor or inconsequential affairs. Student self-government is an actual training for future citizenship and the more practice the students receive in governing themselves the better citizens they will become. One might as well, however, attempt to go swimming without water as to start the student government movement without handing over to the students matters of major importance.

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