Elizabeth C. Burgess

Eight Years of the Grading Committee

The Grading Committee is closing its work. This summary will tell its story. As chariman of this Comittee, I wish to express to members of the nursing organizations our very sincere appreciation not only of their generous financial assistance but also of their helpful criticism and very cordial coöperation. Without this aid, the results of our efforts would have been of little avail. We earnestly hope that the work will be carried on so that the opportunities of nursing may be broadened and strengthened in every way. I am glad that Professor Elizabeth Burgess has consented to write this article. Her calm judgment, wide experience, and constructive imagination have made her a most valuable member of the Committee and no one is better qualified than she is to tell the story.

What Are Nurses Going to Do about It

E have recently been hearing W from various sources the criticism that the nursing organizations and those known as nursing leaders have done nothing toward remedying the ills of the nursing profession and a like complaint from many nurses themselves that the profession is taking no constructive steps to remedy the evils of overproduction and unemployment. While it is possible that this may seem to be the case to those who are uninformed, there has probably been much ill-considered speech and unjustified criticism during these difficult times. I do not agree with those who make these criticisms. I heartily agree with those who state that nursing is sick. It is and has been seriously sick for a long period. Its illness is in a large measure caused by the medical and hospital care which it has received. Such an illness requires a long period of convalescence before full recovery can take place. The illness of the nursing profession began in its infancy, when almost immediately after its birth as a new profession for women it was adopted, we might even say kidnapped, and became the stepchild of a busy and wellmeaning family, which, bent on fulfill-

Advancement of Education through Legislation

T HE National League of Nursing Education, the oldest organization of all assembled here, is concerned primarily with the great problem of the education of nurses, in the preparation of women first of all in the knowledges, skills, technics and qualities needed by everyone who is to give good nursing care and secondly in the further preparation required by those who would enter special forms of nursing service which require special technics and special knowledges. We are interested in the development of the nurse in service, in making possible for her the advantages of higher education, we are interested in research and we are interested in the field into which our young graduates enter. Our object is to determine and to make possible the best education for the workers. We know if we are to do this we must know the field. We must acknowledge that the sole interest of a school of nursing must be the education of its students. It is here that we are sometimes misinterpreted, for our schools are so closely tied to our hospitals, our students are so needed by the hospitals for the care