Nursing in diseases of children

Front matter

NLN 055fl7TTD □

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE

SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE

Preface

Pediatrics, no less than the rest of scientific medicine, has been making tremendous strides within the last few decades and the education of trained nurses has been keeping pace with this progress.

In my lectures to nurses on pediatrics during the last twenty years or so I have often felt the want of a textbook for nurses and I, therefore, welcomed the request of the publishers of this volume that I should prepare such a book. I only wish that they would have permitted me a little more time in its writing and I shall have to beg the indulgence of my readers for the shortcomings it may possess.

This being a textbook for nurses and not for the medical student, I have, so far as possible, omitted all reference to points of diagnosis and of treatment, both duties solely of the physician.

In its place I have endeavored to write concerning tilings which the nurse will require in her work and to develop in her the powers of observation.

In trying to explain seme of the disturbances in the health of the child I have been confronted with diametrically opposite theories. I have, therefore, adopted those which seemed to me to be most reasonable rather than to confuse the mind of the reader by giving too much.

What I bring upon the care and nursing of the child is based upon close unto a quarter of a century of medical practice, and upon the study of pediatrics in some of the largest institutions of learning both here and

PREFACE abroad. I have attempted to give only what I know from my own experience to be good.

In the preparation of a textbook like this an author must quite naturally consult the literature to a certain extent to refresh his own memory on certain points, and perhaps some of the authors of the books consulted by me will find many of their ideas incorporated in these pages. I shall not acknowledge my indebtedness to them individually, but, I herewith thank them one and all.

The chapter on "The Clothing of Infants" has been kindly contributed by Miss M. J. Robertson, R. N., superintendent of the German Deaconess Hospital, Buffalo, N. Y. ; that on "The Public Health Nursing of Children," by Mrs. A. L. Hansen, R. N., Superintendent of the District Nursing Association of Buffalo, N. Y. ; and that on "Mental Hygiene of Children," by my good friend H. G. Matzinger, M.D., also of Buffalo, N. Y. To these I wish to express here my sincerest thanks for their cooperation.

My gratitude is also extended to all those of my friends who have kindly assisted me in many ways.

Buffalo, New York.