Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/355

339 The Past and Future 339 the same disastrous results are found in any country today where a similar system prevails. The revival of nursing which released the nurse from this condition of servitude and gave her again a recognized and dignified status, was accompanied by a scientific revival in medicine. Then it was more or less clearly seen that nursing was a distinct and essential branch of medical science, and that the two professions must develop side by side and in the closest co-operation with one another. The relationship of these two groups in the great family of medicine is rather unique. While their aims are practically the same there is a division of functions which enables one to supplement and complement the other. Nursing is sometimes spoken of as "the official wife" of medicine and perhaps this familiar domestic relationship ex- presses as well as anything the relative functions of these two groups of workers, and their inter- dependence. But it is in the modern relation of helpmate or partner, not in the old Subordinate relationship of household drudge or handmaid, that we find the truest conception of the nurse's place in the family of medicine. The nurse often acts as the physician's assist- ant, but she has many duties apart from this function, the most important being her own dis-