The Sanitarium's Place in the Community'

Address at workshop for directors of nursing, Ta­koma Park, May, 1947.

By J. WAYNE McFARLAND, M.D., Assistant Secretary of the General Conference Medical Department

I AM keenly interested in the program that you as directors of nurses have been study­ing here in Washington. There is nothing so important to our medical institutions as to have godly, consecrated doctors and nurses. The importance of a Christian nurse was viv­idly impressed upon my mind when a God-fear­ing nurse decided that she would go to the Lord and talk over some of the problems of her insti­tution. She went directly to the throne of grace and began to pray for some changes to occur. She did not go to anybody, did not stir up any trouble, or find fault, but just prayed. What she was praying for occurred, and they had a change of management in that institution. One of those who came to take up the work joined the prayer circle, too. These two did not say a word to anybody. They just kept on praying. Soon various changes in departments occurred, all because the Lord was answering the prayers of nurses who knew how to pray.

There is nothing that can influence an insti­tution so much as the nurses, for many times they have a much closer contact with the pa­tients than the physician. They know just which ones are nearest to the kingdom of heaven. This is the work that doctors and nurses are to do in our sanitariums. They are to co-operate in the restoration of fallen man. I want to read a statement found in Counsels on Health that mentions the co-operation which is to take place between physicians and nurses in our medical institutions ordained of God:

"Christ is no longer in this world in person, but He has commissioned us to carry forward the medical missionary work that He began ; and in this work we are to do our very best. For the furtherance of this work institutions for the care of the sick are to be established, where men and women suffering from dis­ease may be placed under the care of God-fearing physicians and nurses."—Page 249.

This is the Saviour's way of continuing the work that He was doing while on earth. We are to be colaborers together with Him, and follow His methods of reaching people. A second statement that I think is very important epito­mizes the work that we should be doing right now in our medical Institutions: "The work in the cities is the essential work for this time. When the cities are worked as God would have them, the result will, be the setting in operation of a mighty movement such as we have not yet witnessed."—Medical Ministry, p. 304.

Now you might wonder just what part a physician and nurse in an institution could have in this important, essential work of city evange­lism. I will only take time to read you one sen­tence from Counsels on Health: "This work [the medical missionary work] is the door through which the truth is to find entrance to the large cities, and sanitariums are to be es­tablished in many places."

True Purpose of Our Institutions

I do not have time to talk on the location, size, and number of our institutions, but I would like to mention the type of institution the Lord calls for. You will find a very reveal­ing statement in Medical Ministry: "The pur­pose of our health institutions is not first and foremost to be that of hospitals."—Page 27. You may ask, "What does that mean? Are we not to have surgery ?" Oh, yes, on page 26 it is made very clear that sanitariums are needed in which both medical and surgical work can be done. It must then be that there is some other objective to be kept in view when it speaks of the sanitarium work.

I have just mentioned one statement because it is pertinent to some of the practical things we will mention in a few minutes. "The light was first given to me why institutions should be established, that is, sanitariums were to re­form the medical practices of physicians."—Page 27. This was written in 1898. What a tre­mendous statement!

The work that physicians and nurses are to carry on in our institutions is not to be a nega­tive approach. It need never be that. But it will be such a positive approach that our patients and the medical world will know we have some­thing entirely new, different, and vital. They will be knocking at our doors trying to get in. It was that way years ago.

Somehow I am afraid that we have been let­ting down the bars, and I wonder what we can do. The standards are down, and too many times the doctors do not help us keep them up. We have disregarded the very first principle—that our institutions are to be reformatory in character. That is a difficult test. It takes much tact; it requires courtesy and ingenuity. And it calls for more conferences such as you are hav­ing here today. We must study ways and means of getting together to see how we can do that which the Lord has requested.

Religious Element to Predominate

The Lord has ordained the sanitariums to be established in many places to stand as memori­als for Him. By the wonderful restorations tak­ing place in our sanitariums, many will be led to look to Christ as the healer of soul and body. That which we call psychomatic medicine is none other than helping the patient rid himself of his fears, his resentments, and his worries. We, as Seventh-day Adventist physicians and nurses, should not lose sight of the fact that God has placed within our hands the greatest psychomatic medicine there is, and that is to lead the patient to Christ. That is the only place where patients can get rid of their fears and worries. This is the only way to carry forward the program of restoration that is a part of our sanitarium work.

In your assignment you have asked that we mention the part the physician can play in help­ing to start the type of work that will bless not only the institution but the community in which it resides. Our sanitariums are to be so estab­lished and conducted that they will be educa­tional in character. In this health-education program, I believe, the key will be found that will revive the fainting spirit of some who see no light in the great principles for which our sanitariums were established. I believe that it has in it the elements that will stifle the spirit of selfishness, the love for money that seems to be creeping into our institutions. Here is some­thing that will help us to get our bearings, and we will find that in this type of work we can best carry forward the work that Christ left to us.

Now what are some of the things that the doctors and nurses can do in health education ? Again I quote : "The only hope of better things is in the education of the people in right prin­ciples."—Ministry of Healing, p. 127. "It is far better to prevent disease than to know how to treat it when contracted."—Ibid., p. 128. The world has seen that the emphasis for better liv­ing must be on a different level from that on which we now find it.

Recently I received a letter along with a manuscript from Dr. Jonathan Forman, who is editor of the Ohio State Medical Journal, also associate editor of Geriatrics, as well as presi­dent of the Friends of the Land movement. He points out that our approach to the health prob­lem is all wrong, that we are only taking care of diseased bodies and racked minds, whereas actually the greatest thing is to show people how to stay well. We will have to get people back to fundamentals, back to tilling the soil. Soil, food, and health are inseparable.

Some of the quotations from the Spirit of prophecy that I did not read state that our in­stitutions should be located in retired places away from the homes of the rich, where people can learn a new way of life. These institutions were to be on farms, where the workers could get out and work on the land, away from the city with its smudge and turmoil. The proper atmosphere for carrying on our sanitarium ed­ucational program is to be found in a retired, country place. Even the world is preaching this now. I dare say that some will come along be­fore long and say, "Isn't that familiar ? Seems to me I read that somewhere." And we will begin searching through the Spirit of prophecy, only to find that years ago placing people in the right atmosphere for healing was a vital part of the Lord's program.

Stemming the Tide of Connnercialism

 

We must do something, and we must do it quickly in order to help stem the tide of com­mercialism that is coming into our institutions. One helpful antidote would be an active pro­gram for every member of the sanitarium fam­ily. I believe that Miss Stoneburner has told you some of the things the nurses are doing here at the Washington Sanitarium. I never saw such a big correspondence band in all my life—made up largely of nurses, sending out health lessons to former patients, and then cor­recting the papers when they were returned. These lessons are to be followed up with the Voice of Prophecy lessons and Bible studies.

—To be concluded in April


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By J. WAYNE McFARLAND, M.D., Assistant Secretary of the General Conference Medical Department

March 1948

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