268 



Missouri AgricuUiiral Report. 



Miss Battson. 



HOME CARE OF THE SICK. 



(Dora B. Battson, Columbia, Missouri, Principal Training School for Nurses.) 



"Home, home, sweet, sweet home, 



Be it ever so humble there's no place like home." 



The sentiment of this song has touched an 

 answering chord in many human hearts in spite of 

 the fact that the American people have grown to 

 be a homeless people. 



One of our great writers has said that given a 

 roaring open-wood fire it is easy to create a happy 

 family, from the soft-voiced mother, her knitting 

 needles flashing in the light, and the grave but 

 kindly faced father, his bronzed and knotted hands 

 resting on his knees, down through the line of 

 strong limbed, deep-voiced lads and rosy cheeked, 

 bright-eyed lasses. But no one lives with imagination sufficient to con- 

 jure up a happy family group around a black hole in the floor. 



With the coming of furnace heat and electric lights and the other 

 modern conveniences, life may have lost some of its sentiment, but it 

 has taken on new comfort and ease. 



In the modern home the care of the sick is not particularly difficult, 

 especially if you do as most doctors advise and call a trained nurse. 

 Even a serious case of illness can be well cared for in a city home with a 

 nurse on duty to report to a doctor, a few blocks away, any change for 

 the worse in a patient 's condition ; but the situation is totally different 

 when the home is a farm house half a dozen miles or more from the 

 doctor and lacking all modern improvements. 



One of the serious propositions in life is when a member of the 

 family in the country is critically ill. Here, by all means, let me say, 

 as a measure of economy, you should employ a graduate nurse. You will 

 probably regard her as an extravagance till you have tried the experi- 

 ment once, but when you have, I say with all confidence, I have no doubt 

 you will repeat it. 



If you have a nurse let her control the situation and concur with 

 her in carrying out the doctor's orders. She is there for that purpose. 

 It will be your duty to see that she has a reasonable amount of rest 

 and recreation and wholesome food. You can best help the patient by 

 caring for the physical welfare of his nurse. 



But when serious illness strikes a farmer's home and he (for what 

 may seem to him justifiable reasons), does not employ a nurse, the care 

 of the sick becomes a matter demanding grave consideration. Here, of 



