Excerpt from Nursing the Insane A large number of the population of every State hospital is composed of chronic and presumably incurable cases, but many are susceptible of marked mental improvement, and some of recovery. These patients make up a large community of peculiar and trying persons. To deal with them wisely and kindly requires exceptional qualities of mind and character. The training of nurses and attendants for these patients must cover a much wider field than is comprised in the course of the ordinary trained nurse. The nurse for the insane must be prepared to care for the ordinary medical and surgical diseases of her patients, in addition to their mental ailments; for insanity does not exempt them from the other ills that flesh is heir to. She must safeguard them from injuring themselves or others, must possess many of the qualities that make a good teacher, since a part of her duty is to help correct faults in early train ing and development, and to encourage and train to correct and useful habits and proper behavior; she has also to employ and entertain her patients, under the direction of the medical officers; and to her is intrusted that almost constant association and companionship which, if sympathetic and judicious, is one of the most potent means of restoring her charges to mental health. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.