The Cost of Nursing Education to the Hospital1

Nursing education is not, and perhaps has never been conducted on a basis sufficiently sound to permit of its (levelopment along strictly educational lines), to enable the nursing profession to step beyond the apprentice stage and raise its educational standards to a high level.

Abstract

T HE hospital carries a heavy responsibility in the education of the nurse. It provides laboratory facilities which no other agency can provide; consequently, it has a very definite obligation in connection with nursing education. The question is constantly asked as to how far the hospital should go in the education of the nurse. We have listened with great interest to repeated discussions upon this subject. How does the cost of conducting a creditable school of nursing compare with the cost of operating a hospital with graduate nursing service? Is the student nurse an expense to the hospital, or is she giving ample return in services for the educational opportunities afforded by the hospital? Should the hospital budget its nursing service on the basis of the paid graduate staff, and contribute to nursing education accordingly? Is the teaching of nurses expensive as far as the hospital itself is concerned, and should the per diem patient cost be loaded with this expense? The evolution in nursing education accentuates these questions, and we must acknowledge their pertinence in our consideration of nursing educational problems. Nursing education is not, and perhaps has never been conducted on a basis sufficiently sound to permit of its (levelopment along strictly educational lines. Few schools have assured sources of maintenance beyond the provision which the hospital makes. Unfortunately, the hospital cannot contribute sufficiently, perhaps, to enable the nursing profession to step beyond the apprentice stage and raise its educational standards to a