We learn from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal that the graduating exercises of the training school for nurses at the City Hospital, Blackwell's Island, were held on June 1st. There were fifty-two graduates. A novel feature in the ceremony was the administration of a modified Hippocratic oath to the class. Among the clauses of the oath are the following: “That you will be loyal to the physicians under whom you serve, as a good soldier is loyal to his officers. That whatsoever you shall see or hear of the lives of men and women, whether they be your patients or members of their households, you will keep inviolably secret, whether you are in other households or among your own friends.” We are of the opinion of the sensible person in Punch who replied to the fair temperance proselytiser that “people should keep sober without taking hoaths about it.” But granting the need of an oath for nurses, the one from which we have quoted seems to be good enough for its purpose. (BMJ 1901;ii:40)
. 2001 Aug 4;323(7307):264.