And they are as
necessary to the nurse as to the teacher. Three of them we have already
discussed:
1. Attention naturally follows interest.
2. Attention may be held by will where reason directs.
3. New interests grow out of willed attention.
A fourth we shall stress before considering the use the nurse can make
of them:
4. The thing to which our chief attention is given becomes the most
important thing.
Do not contradict this too quickly. Don't say that nursing gets your
chief consideration because it is, of necessity, your profession; but
that you love your music infinitely more, and look forward to that
through all your hours on duty. If this merely proves that music is
distracting your attention, you are doing your nursing as a means, and
not as an end; you give it probably all the attention necessary for good
work, but your real desire is music. Your chief attention is directed
toward that goal. Hence music is to you the most important thing. If
your will is sufficiently trained to keep you from consciously thinking
of it, still you are dreaming of it and working for it.
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