Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/200

184 1 84 A Short History of Nursing can least afford to bear the expense of illness, and he needs the best doctor and the best type of nurs- ing rather than the poorest. ... If we get. . . the fundamentals of simple home nursing (the bathing of a patient, the administration of food to bed-patients, the ventilation and cleaning of a sick room), taught to the girl pupils of every one of our families, we shall more nearly meet the needs of the poor man than by promising something which doesn't exist. Popular education on such lines could then be supplemented by the hourly visiting and directing care of the fully trained nurse, in cases where this was needed. This teaching of women generally that they may meet the needs of the family is the only way out, unless regiments of poorly taught and poorly paid workers are to be created, who will themselves presently join the dependent or unemployed or submerged classes. These observations are supported by the great popular response to the teaching already being carried on in home nursing, by nurses under the auspices of the Red Cross. This work, which is extending widely, not only in homes, but also in high schools, colleges, and extension departments, opens up a new and important field for nurses. In such courses there is a great opportunity to teach not only the simple care of the sick, but the