What does sentimentality mean? At times, nursing work seemed to prioritize the order of the hospital ward over patient comfort. One example comes from a poem written by a nurse bemoaning that good nursing before the 1970s usually meant running a ward with neatly made beds, uncluttered bedside tables, uniformly drawn window shades, and “the patient clean, quiet and dependent.” When a 1950s study asked student nurses about the importance of “tender, loving care” as a technique in good nursing care, the majority responded that it “ought not to be overdone” and perhaps reserved for only some patients. This suggests that the students equated caring with sentimentality. But whatever the students’ analysis, they clearly rejected caring as the first or most highly valued aspect of nursing. I know a state of being sentimental is sentimentality. But what does sentimentality in..... equated caring with sentimentality... in the context? “This suggests that the students equated caring with sentimentality.”