As there is a great difference between the Christian Science practitioner and the regular physician, so there is a great difference between the Christian Science nurse and the one who nurses according to the methods of medical practice. As some physicians, however, have given up these methods and become Christian Science practitioners, so some of the best Christian Science nurses have come from the ranks of hospital-trained nurses. In every case this has been so when the material view of God and man, of disease and of medicine, has been replaced by the spiritual view and it has been recognized, as Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 142 of Science and Health, that "Truth is God's remedy for error of every kind."
The Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 31) provides for the Christian Science nurse. He or she must be a member of The Mother Church and as such amenable to its discipline. In addition to a practical knowledge of the care of the sick, the nurse must have a demonstrable knowledge of Christian Science. This last qualification is necessary, in order that the nurse may better understand the patient and his difficulties, may cooperate intelligently with the practitioner; and more than all else, that the nurse's thought and presence may have that spiritual quality which aids in overcoming fear and in bringing peace and hope to the patient, as well as to the household.
In one case, when a disturbing element seemed to interfere with the work being done for the patient, the practitioner said to the nurse that nothing must be allowed to disturb her consciousness of Truth's healing power. This advice was heeded, the interference was overcome, and the patient was healed in a short time. This healing consciousness cannot exist unless the nurse understands in some degree the unreality of the disease which through material sense is deceiving the patient and those around him. A nurse was once reporting to the practitioner over the telephone some recurring conditions in a patient, when there came in gentle tones the reassuring message: "We won't let that deceive us." This case too was healed in a comparatively short time. And often afterward that simple but pregnant, remark was recalled and repeated with benefit to other patients.
