MODE OF ADDRESS IN HOSPITALS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22004, 30 January 1937, Page 18

MODE OF ADDRESS IN HOSPITALS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —The letter of “Once a Patient” is nearly as inane as that of “Hospital Visitor,” which caused our pea famine. The careful nurse is on the safe side, when she is careful in the matter of titles, which may be more important with the" women than it is with us men. Some of us are tickled to death maybe, by being ' accorded the unaccustomed Mr; when, between ourselves, it is more honoured in the breach than the observance. In civil life, one can often spot the school a boy has attended. by his manners: and they tend to stick through life as an asset one takes away from a good school. In a ward of a public hospital as in the army, there are all sorts and conditions of men—women do not come into this letter except nurses. What is more important is our behaviour to the nurses. There are a few occasions when the behaviour of some of us in our second childhood is not all it should be. This soon calls forth audible comments that soon take effect. Any rudeness to the nurses, or coarse language, is soon resented: the nurse may even be advised to administer some corporal punishment: big babies we are. But, we are more interested in what is being done for us in the kitchen than what is left undone for us in our beds; in fact, here, some of us complain that we are overdone with attentions.—Yours, etc., PETER TROLOVE. January 29, 1937.