From MC. 115, 1903 (P).
Regarding Long Courses of Study
Questions have arisen in regard to the management of sanitariums, and in regard to the plans to be followed in the education of physicians and nurses. We are asked whether few or many should take a five years' course.
All are to be left perfectly free to follow the dictates of an enlightened conscience. There are those who with a few months' instruction would be prepared to go out and do acceptable medical missionary work. Some can not feel that it is their duty to give years to one line of study. ...
Practical Instruction to be Given
Great care should be exercised in the training of young people for the medical missionary work; for the mind is molded by that which it receives and retains. To much incomplete work has been done in the education given. The most useful education is that found in practical work.
Our institutions are not to be so overgrown that the most important points in education do not receive the proper consideration. Instruction should be given in medical missionary work. The teaching given in medical lines should be blended with a study of the Bible. And the physical training should not be neglected.
Great care should be exercised in regard to the influences that prevail in the institution. The influences under which the nurses are placed will mold their character for eternity. ...
The youth in their waywardness and inexperience need to associate with teachers who feel an intense interest in the work of educating and training the members of the Lord's family. The teachers are to have no favorites among their students. They are not to give the most attention to the bright, quick students.
First impressions are not to be trusted. It is those who apparently are the most unpromising, who need the most tact and kindly words that will bind their hearts to the heart of the teacher. Angels of God come to every schoolroom. If their presence is welcomed, they will keep the minds of the students fresh with the love of God. And they will help the teacher to preserve order and discipline.
Students who at first may seem to be dull and slow may in the end make greater progress than those who are naturally quicker. If they are thorough and systematic in their work, they will gain much that others will fail to gain. Those who form habits of patient, persevering industry will accomplish more than those of quick, vivacious, brilliant minds, who, though grasping a point quickly, lose it just as readily. The patient ones, though slower to learn, will stand ahead of those who learn so quickly that they do not need to study.
Sanitariums to be in the Country
I have received much instruction regarding the location of sanitariums. They should be a few miles distant from the large cities, and land should be secured in connection with them. Fruit and vegetables should be cultivated, and the patients should be encouraged to take up out-door work. Many who are suffering from pulmonary disease might be cured if they would live in a climate where they could be out of doors most of the year. Many who have died of consumption might have lived if they had breathed more pure air. Fresh out-door air is as healing as medicine, and leaves no injurious after-effects.
To the young and strong the bustle of the city are sometimes more agreeable than the quiet of the country, but the sick long for the quiet of the country.
As these things are presented before me, and as I think of how much is lost by an indoor life, I can scarcely endure the thought of our sanitariums being situated where the patients must endure the rigor of cold winters, where during the winter months they must remain inside most of the time, the rooms heated with steam coils, and the air impure. In every place there are in winter time some things that are disadvantageous to the sick, but some places have fewer disadvantages than others. There are localities where all the year round fruit-bearing trees may be seen, and where but little fire is needed for purposes of warmth. In sanitariums established in such places the patients can have the advantages of the out-door air at all seasons of the year. When fire are required, there should, if possible, be open fireplaces in which wood can be burned.
Why do not our physicians see and understand that patients should be treated out of and away from the cities? And not the patients only, but physicians and nurses need a cheerful, sunshiny atmosphere. Is it surprising that under gloomy surroundings, workers should be down-hearted and depressed, leading unbelievers to think that their religion makes them gloomy? Let there be light and love and cheerful song in the place of gloom, and what a change would take place? ...
Simplicity in Diet and Treatments
It would have been better if, from the first, all drugs had been kept out of our sanitariums, and use had been made of such simple remedies as are found in pure water, pure air, sunlight, and some of the simple herbs growing in the field. These would be just as efficacious as the drugs used under mysterious names, and concocted by human science. And they would leave no injurious effects in the system.
Thousands who are afflicted might recover their health if, instead of depending upon the drug-store for their life, they would discard all drugs, and live simply, without using tea, coffee, liquor, or spices, which irritate the stomach and leave it weak, unable to digest even simple food without stimulation. The Lord is willing to let his light shine forth in clear, distinct rays to all who are weak and feeble.
Vegetables, fruits and grains should compose our diets. Not an ounce of flesh-meat should enter our stomachs. The eating of flesh is unnatural. We are to return to God's original purpose in the creation of man. ... There is blessing in the association of old and young. The young may bring sunshine into the hearts and minds of the aged. Those of hoary heads need the vitality and action of the young. And the young need the wisdom and mature experience of older persons. There is to be a blending of the two. Wisdom and patience will do a great work for the weak and sickly. ...
The Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the earth. They are no longer of benefit to the world in advancing truth and righteousness. They are about to be gathered in bundles, ready to be burned. They are as faggots ready to be cast into the fire.
Ellen G. White.