Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/359

343 The Past and Future 343 this work which is so distinctly in line with their inherited functions and with the generic meaning of their name. It is rather interesting in this con- nection to note that the ancient Greeks evidently- regarded these conservative and nursing functions as belonging peculiarly to the feminine side of the medical family, the wife and daughters of Asklepios, god of medicine, representing in their combined at- tributes a symbolic picture of the wider field of mo- dern nursing. Although still CO' operating with medical and other experts, the public health nurse is obliged to work very much on her own responsibihty and initiative, planning and directing her own activi- ties and the activities of others. In the older branches of teaching and administration as well as in certain technical branches, the nurse has always had to stand pretty much on her own feet and has had to depend constantly on her own judgment and knowledge. In fact there is really no branch of nursing where individual intelligence, resourceful- ness and initiative are not required and where they are not exercised constantly. The popular idea that the nurse works under the constant eye of the physician and that all she has to do is automatically to carry out his orders, is entirely misleading and is unjust and injurious not only to the nurse herself