THE NURSE OF THE FUTURE
The student of life and of the sciences which deal with the origin and
development of the human race, and with the relations of man to man and
nation to nation--such sciences as biology and anthropology, sociology
and ethics and history--comes to the conclusion that life exists for the
development of mind. And mind is not merely intellect, but the only
gateway we know to character, to soul. The deepest students of human
science see no reason for life except as it "evolves" a perfect
mind--man's goal, his ideal. And this visioned perfect mind is one
which adjusts itself without friction to the body, making it fulfil the
laws of health that it may help and not hinder mind's progress; one
which adjusts itself to people and things, co-operating with other minds
to develop manners and customs and laws of the most satisfactory
community living; one which forces things to be servants of its will;
one which makes harmony of life by fulfilling the laws of the soul as
well as of the intellect and of the body.
If we believe that life exists for the development of mind into a force
of intellect and character and soul, then we need not ask why a nurse
should know something of the laws of mind. She does not ask why she
should know anatomy or pathology. Her work is dependent upon such
knowledge. But if the center of life, the thing which makes the body a
living, moving, acting agent instead of a clod, is mind; if the one
thing which makes a difference between animal life and mineral and
vegetable life is consciousness, _i. e._, mind; and if everything that
affects that body, its organ, affects mind also--then surely no nurse
can afford to learn only the rules of repair or of keeping in order the
instrument of consciousness, without knowing what effect her efforts
have on the mind itself. It is as though an ignorant maid accepted a
piano as merely a piece of furniture to be kept clean and shining, and
in her zeal to that end scrubbed the keyboard with soap and water which,
dripping down into the body of the instrument, swells and damages its
felts, rusts and corrodes its keys, and ruins its notes. When she knows
that she may thus make impossible the beautiful sounds she has heard it
give, and that the more carefully the keyboard is handled the more sure
is the beauty resulting, her care is to keep it as free as possible of
dust, to see that the top is down and the keyboard covered when she
sweeps--and to clean it hereafter in such a way as to never injure its
tone.
The nurse has a much greater function than merely to help in saving the
body and keeping its machinery in order. If the aim of life is the
strengthening and perfecting of the mind--that "urge" of life, then
surely the nurse's big aim will be to help establish such health of body
as leads toward health of mind. In the average man or woman this vital
urge becomes temporarily blocked by the very weakness of the body it
urges. The body _must_ give the life-flame some fuel, or it dies out;
but with very little fuel it flickers on, waiting, hoping for the more
that it may burn strongly again. In the cases the nurse handles very
often the "vital spark" has been poorly fed by the disabled body, and so
discouragement or depression, or "loss of grip" results, or the flame
continues to shine brightly with whatever little sustenance it receives,
and so encourages the body to greater effort for it; or sinks into
embers, glowing steadily though dully; or it burns wildly,
recklessly--it becomes what we call "wild fire," that has no direction
and no purpose save to burn up everything it can find.
In other words, the nurse deals with those in whom the "urge" is
weakened--the depressed and discouraged; with those whose spirits never
flag in their steady shining--those brave souls we could almost worship;
and those others who hold grimly on with quiet grit and courage, but
with no cheer; and with the unstable ones of neuropathic or psychopathic
tendency who become hysteric or maniacal.
What will the nurse do for them all? Will not an understanding of how to
recall the ambition to live, the will to get well, and the grit to see
the thing through, be an incalculable asset.
THE NURSE OF THE FUTURE
The nurse of the future will not be merely a handmaiden to care for the
sick body by deftly carrying out the doctor's orders. She will do this
almost automatically as a matter of course, and skilfully; but it will
be the merest beginning of her mission. That mission itself will be to
eliminate the causes of disease; to teach the ways of health, to
supervise the sanitary conditions of city, town, and country. Practical
ways and the wise means to this end will be taught in her hospital,
which will become a community center with clinics, teaching through its
doctors and nurses the way to health, instead of merely treating and
advising the cases as they come. But the greatest contribution of the
nurse of the future will be a wide-spread _desire for health_ and _will
to health_, rather than a desire and will to avoid discomfort and pain
and danger of death. This _will to health_ will doom in the sane mind
the disease-accepting attitude. It will do all that common sense and
applied medical science can do to strengthen the body; then it will take
what life brings in the way of unavoidable disease and weakness and
inability, with an uncringing mind. It will hold the mind's attitude to
serenity and poise and accomplishment within the necessary limits of its
disordered body. It will be master of its dwelling and make the most of
the little the body can give, and force all bearable weakness and pain
to be stepping-stones to endurance and will-strength and cheer. It will
not accept physical limitations as final things. If life must be lived
in a prison-house it will be its own jailer, and fill the rooms with
flowers, music, friends, and happiness.
No nurse is competent to help her patient to overcome any curable
physical weakness, and keep the mind serene in the face of the
incurable, until she herself has learned that the will to health is
capable of transforming disease of body, from disaster, into health of
mind and soul.
The nurse of the future will know the laws of mind as she knows the
course of disease; she will be dedicated to such wise care of existing
disease as will lead to prevention of future disease; and she will be a
sworn, trained ally of the health-accepting mind.
INDEX
Absent-mindedness, 64
Absolutes, 54
Abstract concept, 52
object concepts, 53
quality concepts, 53
Accuracy of perception, 141
Action cannot be separated from feeling, 68
Acts, compulsive, 106
Adaptability, 79
necessity of, 80
Amnesia, 103
Anesthesia, 101
Aphasia, 103
Apperception, 54
Association of ideas, 143
Attention, 79
of interest, 112
of reason and will, 118
root of disease or health attitude, 112
Autosuggestion, 84
Awareness, 15
Bad habits, 91
Beginning of reason, 69
Body and mind, relation of, 40
Borderland disorders, 107
Brain, 33
hind, 43
Censor, 31
Central and peripheral nervous systems in action, 35
Cerebellum, 43
Cerebrum, 43
functions of, 45
Clear thinking, steps to, 140
Compulsive acts, 106
ideas, 103
Concentration, 146
Concepts, 52
abstract, 52
object, 53
quality, 53
concrete, 52
Concrete concepts, 52
Consciousness, 15, 20, 21
definition, 15
flow of, 47
in delirium, 32
in sleep, 31
is complex, 29
organs of, 34
personal, 57
Delirium, consciousness in, 32
Deluded patient, 133
nursing of, 135
Delusion, 104
nihilistic, 104
of reference, 104
somatic, 104
Determination, 18
Development of reason and will, 71
Disease attitude, attention, root of, 112
Disorders, 95
borderland, 107
of emotion, 99
of functions of intellect, 96
of ideation, 97
of judgment, 99
of memory, 98
of perception, 96
of reason, 98
of sensation, 96
of will, 99
Disorientation, 103
Distractibility, 105
Effort, habit a conserver of, 90
Emotion, 18, 45, 49
disorders of, 99
the place of, 67
Emotional equilibrium, 152
reaction, normal, 77
Environment as cause of variation from normal mental processes, 109
Equilibrium, emotional, 152
False associations, mind a prey to, 137
Feeling, 49
cannot be separated from action, 68
from thinking, 67
from will, 68
Fixed idea, 103
Flight of ideas, 102
Forebrain, 43
Future, the nurse of the, 164
Getting other man's point of view, 126
patient's point of view, 124
Habit a conserver of effort, 90
bad, 91
hospital, 92
Habit-formation, 79
Hallucination, 101
Health and psychology, 79
attitude, attention, root of, 112
Heredity as course of variation from normal mental processes, 108
Hind brain, 43
Hospital habit, 92
How to study, 146
Hurt, 70
Hyperesthesia, 101
Hypersuggestability, 84
Hypochondriasis, 102, 108
Hysteria, 107
Idea, compulsive, 103
fixed, 103
Ideas, association of, 143
flight of, 102
Ideation, 52
disorders of, 97
Ideogenous pains, 103
Illusion, 101
Imagination, 58
Impulses, insane, 108
Inhibition, morbid, 104
Inorganic memory, 52
Insane impulses, 108
Insanity, 107
Instinct, 59
Instincts, list of, 61
Intellect, 18, 45
functions of, disorders of, 96
Interest, attention of, 112
Judgment, 56, 72
disorders of, 99
Life, mental, 14
conditions of, 19
phenomena of, 15
Mania, 107
Melancholia, 107
Memory, 51, 62
disorders of, 98
inorganic, 52
organic, 51
self-training in, 150
Mental disability, states of, 100
life, 14
conditions of, 19
phenomena of, 15
processes, normal, variations from, 95, 101
factors causing, 108
Mind, 14, 33
a prey to false associations, 137
and body, relation of, 40
functions of, 50
normal, 47, 77
Mood, 49
Morbid inhibition, 104
Motion, 26
Movement, 26
Mutism, 106
Necessity of adaptability, 80
Negativism, 106
Nervous systems, central and peripheral, in action, 35
sympathetic, 37
Nervousness, 106
Neurasthenia, 108
Neuropath, 108
Neurosis, 106
from psychosis, 82
Neurotic, 108
Nihilistic delusion, 104
Normal emotional reactions, 77
Normal mental processes, variations from, 95, 101
factors causing, 108
mind, 47, 77
Nurse of the future, 164
psychology of, 139
Nursing deluded patient, 135
Obsessed patient, 136
Obsession, 105
One thought replaced by another, 89
Organic memory, 51
Organs of consciousness, 34
Overactivity, psychomotor, 106
Pain, 69
ideogenous, 103
Patient, deluded, 133
nursing of, 135
obsessed, 136
Patient's point of view, getting, 124
what determines it, 124
Percept, 51, 52
Perception, 51
accuracy of, 141
disorders of, 96
training of, 142
Peripheral and central nervous systems in action, 35
Personal consciousness, 57
reactions as cause of variation from normal mental processes, 110
Personality, psychopathic, 108
shut-in, 104
Perversions, 95, 101
Phenomena of mental life, 15
Phobia, 108
Place of emotion, 67
Pleasure, 69
Point of view, getting other man's, 126
patient's, getting, 124
what determines it, 124
Poor memory, 64
Power of suggestion, 84
Premise, 72
Protozoön, consciousness in, 15
Psychasthenia, 108
Psychology and health, 79
definition, 12
of the nurse, 139
Psychomotor overactivity, 106
retardation, 106
Psychoneurosis, 106
Psychopathic personality, 108
Psychosis, 107
neurosis from, 82
Pugnacious instinct, 60
Reactions, normal emotional, 77
proportioned to stimuli, 75
Reason, 56
and will, attention of, 118
development of, 71
beginning of, 69
disorders of, 98
Reference, delusion of, 104
Relation of mind and body, 40
Retardation, psychomotor, 106
Saving power of will, 93
Science, 13
Second-nature, 90
Self-correction, 160
Self-training in memory, 150
Sensation, 51
disorders of, 96
Sense of unreality, 104
Shut-in personality, 104
Sleep, consciousness in, 31
Somatic delusion, 104
Steps to clear thinking, 140
Stimuli, reaction proportioned to, 75
Stimulus, definition, 22
Stream of thought, 50, 57
Study, how to, 146
Suggestibility, 79
Suggestion, power of, 84
Sympathetic nervous system, 37
The unconscious, 23
Thinking, 49, 58
cannot be separated from feeling, 67
clear, steps to, 140
Thought, stream of, 50, 57
Thought-substitution, 79
Tic, 105
Training perception, 142
the will, 161
Unconscious, the, 23
Universals, 53
Unreality, sense of, 104
Variations from normal mental processes, 95, 101
factors causing, 108
Volition, 45, 50
What determines patient's point of view, 124
we attend to determines what we are, 86
Will, 50, 79
and reason, attention of, 118
development of, 71
cannot be separated from feeling, 68
disorders of, 100
saving power of, 93
training of, 161
=A Short History=
=of Nursing=
From the Earliest Times to the Present Day
By
=Lavinia L. Dock, R.N.=
Secretary, International Council of Nurses
In Collaboration with
=Isabel Maitland Stewart, A.M., R.N.=
Assistant Professor, Department of Nursing and Health,
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York
_12^o. Price, $3.00_
=This New Volume Has Been Prepared Especially=
=for the Use of Student Nurses=
It is, in effect, a condensation of the four volumes of the larger
_History of Nursing_, prepared by Miss Dock in collaboration with
Miss Nutting, a work which has been considered standard on the subject,
but which, by its very nature, was too elaborate for class use. This
condition has now been overcome by condensation into this single,
comprehensive, inexpensive volume of all the salient facts of the larger
work.
It is generally believed that the best place in the nursing curriculum
for the History of Nursing is in the early part of the first year, when
the student is just beginning to form her conception of nursing, and is
being initiated into its traditions.
=The Many Excellent Features of this=
=_Short History of Nursing_=
will inevitably bring it into use in a very great number of Hospital
Training Schools; it should, of course, be in the library of every
Hospital which does not maintain a Training School. It is believed that
it will be found to be
=The Best Volume on This Important Subject=
(_Over_)
=Some of the=
=Putnam Nursing Books=
=Maxwell and Pope's Practical Nursing=
Price $2.50.
=Cadmus' Manual of Obstetrical Nursing=
Approximate price $1.50.
=Dock's Materia Medica for Nurses=
Price $2.25.
=Higgins' Psychology of Nursing=
Price $2.50.
=Pope's Manual of Nursing Procedure=
Price $2.40.
=Pope's Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology for Nurses=
600 pages. Price $2.90.
=Pope's Quiz Book for Nurses=
485 pages. Price $2.50.
=Dock and Nutting's History of Nursing=
In four volumes. Illustrated volumes 1 and 2, price $7.50. Volumes 3
and 4, price $7.50.
=Dock and Stewart's Short History of Nursing=
One volume, 400 pages. Price $3.00.
=Pope's Physics and Chemistry for Nurses=
450 pages. Price $2.50.
Arthur W. Isca
Medical and Nurse Books
Besse Building
Minneapolis, Minnesota
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note: Here is a list of corrected errors. Line numbers
count from the start of the book itself not including the Transcriber's
Note. Alternatively, use the HTML version, in which the errors are
marked.
l780: ecstacy changed to ecstasy
l1258: Missing full-stop in i. e.
l1665: or changed to of
l1766: pasttime changed to pastime
l1867: strees changed to stress
l1883: council changed to counsel
l1994: , changed to .
l2324: em-dash changed to hyphen
l2588: hypochondrasis changed to hypochondriasis
l2817: successfuly changed to successfully
l3334: stubborness changed to stubbornness
l4120: in changed to is
l4198: weakenss changed to weakness
The inconsistent hyphenation of hypo-mania is as in the original.
End of Project Gutenberg's Applied Psychology for Nurses, by Mary F. Porter