As a parting gift when I left my first career, my boss presented me with a nursing textbook from 1926. Its original owner had signed the inside cover, and had studied in my city, in 1930. The full title is, "Text-Book of Nursing Technique", by Irene V. Kelley, R.N.
The textbook even contained some inserted, loose pages, that were nursing school exams from the early 1930s!
All I can say, is wow, has the field of nursing ever come a looooong way since then.
Naturally, given my love of obstetrics/L&D, I went to that section of the textbook first. There were many notable paragraphs in it, but I want to highlight two here:
1- During the second stage of labour, the nurse is to "anticipate the physician's wants, and act quickly." I realize that is certainly the ideal situation and exemplified good teamwork, when each team member knows what the other is doing and what that person may require. However, I found it amusing to have a nurses's role spelled out that way.
2- the other sentence that I really loved, was in a section that described how a nurse is to care for a premature baby. The textbook reads as follows, "The salient features of the care of thepremature are: Keeping the tiny morsel of humanity evenly and constantly warm."
Yes, I want to work with "tiny morsels of humanity". That's so sweetly written. :-)
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