Obstetrical Nursing: A Text-Book on the Nursing Care of the Expectant Mother, the Woman in Labor, the Young Mother and Her BabyVan Blarcom, Carolyn Conant
Science
Obstetrical Nursing: A Text-Book on the Nursing Care of the Expectant Mother, the Woman in Labor, the Young Mother and Her Baby
Van Blarcom, Carolyn Conant
Infants -- Care; Maternity nursing; Pregnancy
It is clear that the nurse must cultivate adaptability and
resourcefulness if she is to give good care to all her patients under
all conditions. But even the most efficient and intelligent work will
not be wholly satisfactory unless it is infused with a spirit of
sympathy for the woman as an individual.
The thing that counts in this connection is what the nurse, herself,
means to the woman who is facing a very important and mysterious event,
who, after every known aid has been given, must still go through a great
deal alone, both mentally and physically. It is not helpful to a woman
in such a situation to be told that women have borne children since the
dawn of Creation and that they all have had pain; that she will have to
go through with it, as they have, and that the less fuss she makes about
it the better. But it does help her to have the nurse say that she has
been with so many women in labor that she knows they suffer intensely,
and because she knows it so well she wants to do all that lies in her
power to give even a little relief. The nurse may never know just how
she has helped and reassured; how a pain was made a little easier to
bear, not only by the hand slipped under an aching back, but also by the
sympathy that the act conveyed. But she may be sure that she has helped.
In such a connection, the nurse must guard against the mistake of
dividing her patients into well defined groups: those who are poor and
those who are more favored. If she unfailingly looks for the human being
beyond the patient she will find some of the most sensitive and
appreciative of women among the simplest and poorest and they will be
warmly responsive to a thoughtful, considerate attitude. And at the same
time, the patient in comfortable circumstances who seems to be
surrounded by all that one could desire, is often pathetically lonely
and isolated. She, too, will be appreciative of encouragement and an
attitude of concern for her comfort.
Suffering and anxiety make no class distinctions and have a very
leveling effect, for prince and pauper, alike, need sympathy when
afflicted.
From the standpoint of the nurse herself, there might be discouragement
in this description of what is expected of her, and what are her
opportunities in this work of caring for mothers and babies, if she did
not go straight to the heart of the matter and see that all that is
needed, after all, is good nursing. She must realize, of course, that
good nursing necessitates training and a spirit of such eager service
that she will do for her patient all that lies in her perhaps limited
power, and then try to learn of still more that she may offer. And she
may rest assured that the value of her work will be quite as dependent
upon such a spirit as upon her training.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account