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A NURSE'S LIFE IN WAR
AND PEACE

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A NURSE'S LIFE IN
WAR AND PEACE

BY

E. C. LAURENCE, R.R.C.

AUTHOR OF "MODERN NURSING IN HOSPITAL AND HOME"

WITH A PREFACE BY

SIR FREDERICK TREVES, Bart.

G.C.V.O., C.B., LL.D.

LONDON
SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1912

[All rights reserved]

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Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

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PREFACE

The charm of these letters, it will at once be found, depends upon theirsimplicity, their artlessness, their obvious candour. They present aplain, untinted account of a nurse's career, of the difficulties she hasto face, and the problems she has to solve. Those who wish to knowsomething of a nurse's life and times will find in this writing aconvincing narrative, unemotional and matter-of-fact.

This is no small merit, since the record of nursing experiences is aptto be blurred by exaggeration or made nauseous by sickly romance. Thereis pathos enough in the sick-room and in the presence of death, butthose who come in touch with it would do better to hush the knowledge intheir hearts, rather than to proclaim it on the house-tops. Apart fromthis, the world must be a little weary of the astute sick child wholisps melodrama into the ear of the "kind nurse," as well as of thebizarre aphorisms of the dying tramp.

The faults of management and lapses of discipline which crop upincidentally in the story are now matters of the past, and are no longerto be found in either the "Children's Hospital" or the "General."

The novice who is entering the profession of Nursing will find in theseletters a sensible and exact view of the prospect that lies before her.She may further glean some insight as to the qualifications of the good[Pg vi]nurse. These qualifications are to be expressed neither by certificatesnor by badges, neither by starched uniforms nor by examination results.They are happily beyond the mechanical gauge of any examiner, and abovethe platitudes of the official testimonial.

Of the perfect nurse it may be said that "her price is far aboverubies," and that her place is high in the company of admirable women.She is versed in the elaborate ritual of her art, she has tact and soundjudgment, she can give strength to the weak and confidence to the faintat heart, she has that rarest sight which can see the world through thepatient's eyes, and she is possessed of those exquisite, intangible,most human sympathies which, in the fullest degree, belong alone to her sex.

FREDERICK TREVES.

December 1911.

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CONTENTS