good nurse, thoroughly conscientious, but not a natural one
like Miss X." It only means that Miss X's main purpose in life has
always been caring for the sick, while Miss Y's secondary concern is
that. There is a third, however, who may be sidetracked into nursing,
but whose chiefest interest and attention in life has not been so much a
certain profession or accomplishment, but a passion for people, with an
ability to enter into their lives understandingly. She may not care for
nursing in itself. It is only accidental that her thoughts were turned
to it. But her liking for people makes it easier for her to concentrate
attention on the details of nursing, as thereby she is fulfilling her
life's ambition in studying and serving human beings. She may be a real
success if she can only convince herself that this is her forte. If not,
and she dreams of other fields of service, her concentration on the
thing at hand is not perfect enough for her to compete successfully with
the "born nurse."

Whatever it is, the thing that gets our chief attention is the most
important to us. It may be lack of appetite, or pain in the side,
indigestion, general disability, discomfort, the mistreatment we once
received, the mistake we once made, or the sin we committed--whatever it
is that holds our attention, it is the most absorbing and interesting
thing in the universe, though it may be an utterly morbid interest, an
unhappy attention. But it blots out for the time the rest of the world.
A big hint for the nurse exists therein. Let her try in every lawful way
to divert her patient's attention from the disease-breeding stimuli
toward the happy and wholesome ones.

For the nurse herself in the care of patients let us draw some
conclusions from these laws of the mind's working:

1. Have a goal in view for the patient's health of both body and mind.

2. Work toward instilling in your patient a health ambition--a pride in
health.

3. Remember that overcrowding the mind defeats your purpose of making
one clear impression.

4. Win interest by any legitimate means to the next step toward the
goal, and only the next.

5. Work for attention to hopeful, courageous, and happy things.

Let us as nurses remember always that it is for the patient's sake and
not for our own that certain results must be obtained. Our work is
usually in helping the doctor to get the best possibilities out of the
material at hand, and we cannot hope to change the fab