Nursing in America 173 Indian girls were for some years trained in nursing at Carlisle, and were also sent from the general school there to large hospitals Indian in different cities. The number of nurses Indian graduates being small, they have formed no separate organization. As, every year, new training schools were opened and new demands made publicly for nurses, a pressing need became generally felt for state some acceptable standard of profes- registration sional instruction, — some minimum line below which the preparation for nursing must not fall. It became clear that the best schools and the most perfected courses could take care of themselves, but what would protect and also elevate the lesser ones? Contrary to the beliefs of anti-registra- tionists, that theory would come to be accepted for practice if licensing for nurses were adopted, nurses urged that state registration must call for satisfactory practical experience and bedside teaching, and they pointed out that under com- petitive conditions, and with no state regulation, practical teaching was already being danger- ously skimped in many institutions, while printed lists of lectures and classes were often used to hide actual defects in practical, clinical in- struction.
