Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/66

 dence in some registry or good rooming house. Her uniforms and laundry form a heavy item of expense.

Graduate nurses do not always take up general practice, but may secure positions on hospital staffs, perhaps in the very school from which they have just graduated, or in smaller out-of-town hospitals. All large State institutions and private charities employ trained nurses. This list includes houses of correction and refuge, asylums and homes for crippled, blind and mentally defective children, homes for the aged, and large schools where the nurse works under the matron. Factories and department stores also employ nurses to guardthe general health of employees and act in case of accident. In many cities the Board of Education maintains a corps of nurses, health departments also give them employment, and nearly every large city has its visiting nurses. The highest salaried posts are those of superintendents in hospitals and sanitariums, but experienced nurses agree that a period of general practice is desirable as preparation for any salaried position in an institution.

If you cannot take a complete course, and you are still determined to work for the sick, then you must select different lines from those followed by the trained nurse. You may become what is known as a convalescent nurse, or