NURSING WORLD JUBILEE

Evening Star, Issue 22027, 13 May 1935, Page 1

NURSING WORLD JUBILEE

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS’ RECORD /■ Seventy-five years ago saw the beginning ,of training on modern lines lor a career that now absorbs thousands of women (says the London ‘ Daily Telegraph’). Hospital nurses are celebrating tiie revolution that has taken place m their conditions since 1860. Jn that year the Nightingale School lor the training of pronationers at St. Thomas's Hospital was opened. It was the first training sellout attached to a hospital, and a report of , the ‘ British Medical Journal,’ in 1874, indicates that it was not generally copied for some time. Last year the total paid in salaries to nurses at the London Hospital was £38,657. This was just over double the salary total for 1919, £19,280.

What a revolution since the seventies of the last century, when the salary paid to a day nurse at this hospital was £2l 16s.

Modem nurses are reaping the full benefit of reforms which it has taken three-quarters of a century to evolve. Conditions at the London Hospital 50 years ago have been brought to light by a discovery, by the authorities there of a report drawn up m 1880 on nursing conditions by a special subcommittee. This has been submitted to the 'Daily Telegraph’ as a document of historical interest. The conditions revealed by this report may be regarded as typical. The snb-committce was sot up “ to inquire into the present system, to consider the causes of the frequent resignations and to suggest remedies. 1 ’ As a result of a petition from the nurses to the chairman of the hospital complaint was made that there was “ no change of food throughout the year beyond beef to mutton and vice versa,” and that off-duty time was inadequate. The petition was written in an uneducated hand, with many spelling mistakes.

The probationers and nurses of that day wore not only illiterate, ■ but often of * doubtful character. No standard of education was expected of them. They were “ trained ” at the end of the year. In contrast to the well-planned nurses homes of to-day, they lodged in what was virtually the hospital, and were only allowed out every other day. The only full meal they received was dinner.

As for their characters, the committee reported that of 32 who left during 1879 13 were dismissed petty thieving, immoral conduct, insubordination and wearing other nurses’ clothes. A few absconded.

The period of three years’ training was regarded by the reformers as an unattainable ideal. Here are the reforms with regard to probationers recommended by this sub-committee 55 years ago. Candidates were to be carefully examined both from the • educational ami moral point of view. The training period was fixed at two years instead of one, and certificates of proficiency were to be issued. Full board was in be given to probationers, but their salarv was not altered, as it

compared favourably with the rate in force elsewhere. It started at £l2, becoming 18 guineas and £2l in successive, years. Free- time, board, salaries, and pensions were four of the burning questions dealt with in recommending reforms for the nurses. Nurses, as well as probationers, were to receive full board. The salary—£2l 16s for day, £2 more for night nurses—was increased to bring it on a level with that paid in other hospitals. Day nurses received £25 a year after throe years’ service, and the maximum for night nurses was increased to £27. Pensions were given after 20 years’ service, and amounted to 7s a week for nurses and 12s a week for sisters. Night nurses no longre had to find and pay for substitutes when they were ill or on holiday, and were to be allowed out daily. THE IDEAL MATRON. The then new idea of having resident ward maids was recomended in this report to replace the ward charwomen, who were dirty in appearance and suspected of bringing iu forbidden articles of food for the patients. - The hospital authorities, as a result of the report, set themselves to discover what they regarded as the ideal matron. They were unanimous that the Florence Nightingale type, the woman with a mission, _ was to be avoided at all costs. This is what they thought of her. A long paragraph in the report is devoted to the danger of appointing a person with preconceived notions of sisterhood, and believing that she has a “mission.” Such agents, .where introduced, have so frequently shown an impatience of control, a determination to share in the government of the institution, and a tendency to interfere with the medical and civil regulations, that a state of chronic discord has not seldom arisen. . . . Those are matters of public notoriety and require no further comment.” Florence Nightingale must have had many imitators who fought- their hospital committees as Miss Nightingale fought government departments. Having decided upon the reforms it remained for the committee to appoint the matron who was to (implement them. The choice fell on Miss Eva Lnekes, and in many ways it was a surprising one. On her appointment in 1880 she was only 24 years of age, and probationers wore at that time required to bo 25; she was at the head of a staff, among whom 'dismissals lor drunkenness were not infrequent and at a hospital in the heart of one of the poorest districts in London, It was a heavy task for one whom some of the committee thought “ too young and too pretty.” The committee had fulminated against women with a “ mission ” ; in Miss Lnekes they inadvertently appointed one. She was a willing instrument in carrying out their reforms, and she envisaged many others. , . . , In 1895 she established the first preliminary training home lor probationers, who were fhus able to acquire a knowledge of hospital routine before entering the wards. It was she who first interested Mr Sydney Holland, later Viscount Knutsford. in the work of the hospital, and in 1596 he joined this committee. Within It months he was chairman, and the London Hospital has not since looked back.