HOSPITAL-ITIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 80

HOSPITAL-ITIES.

By Convalescent.

Th > Dunedin Hospital, as the curative centre lor a very large population, may be described as the local Lourdes, minus any pretension to the miraculous —the Fountain of Healing to which 2426 in-patients and 11,656 out-patients resorted for relief in 1914 These afflicted pilgrims are gathered horn the city and its suburbs and from the six counties in Otago, the latter hav.ng a population of 31,4 f 9. The levies made upon the local bodies by the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board last year totalled £13,260, of which the Dunedin Corporation contributed £6913; County Councils, £6ooj suburban councils and Hoad Boards, £3946. Ivitn such a wide sphere for its beneficent act.vitics, as a matter of course several hundred sympathetic visitors from town and country resort to the seven pr ucipa! hospital wards in the course of the year; but these can have but a very faint conception of what HOSPITAL WARD LIFE really is. By the same token no great man is a hero to his valet. We never really know each other until we have lived together under tee same roof-tree or on board ship; and the Wile of Bath was shrewdly near the truth when she declared, “Wo dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.” To such casual visitors, and to the many thousands who never go near the institution, but d.rcctly by donations. Hospital Saturday collections, or indirectly contributed £41,592 last year for the upkeep of these noble charities, the first-hand experience of a “ convalescent ” will no doubt be interesting. A patient requir.ng surgical treatment will on admission find a cot allotted to him in, say, the Plunket ward, and for a few days will remain under observation. Very soon he will be prepared inside and out lor his approaching v.sit to the operating theatre. Externally, the battle against microbes will begin by making him chemically clean, which is quite a different tinng from soap-and-water purification. Inside ho will be a void. A day or two before the operation the surgeon to whose care the patient in consigned will hold an ante-mortem inquest on the case, the sufferer during the bedside demonstration presenting a spectacle to men and angels, the former represented by students walking the hospital for .their last year, and the hitter by a bevy of young women students. On operation day, after receiving a quieting hypodermic injection, he will walk to the theatrp if ho can. or bo wheeled there on a trolly-bed if he can’t walk. There ho will mount a table, with the anaesthetist on one side and on the other a nurse enveloped in disinfected gauze from head to foot, her face and hands alone being uncovered. The garb suggested a cheap and effective costume for the next fancy dress ball for a visitor taking the character of Hygeia. The nervous, no doubt, enter this chamber in fear of the pending excursion into the unknown, for, if sleep is death’s half-brother, anaesthetic unconsciousness must be the twin brother. Sleep can easily be broken by, say, a .snoring bod-fellow; but chloroform brings sweet oblivion, and robs the surgeon’s knife of its terrors. The strong-nerved and the philosophical face the ordeal as all should meet the call to the Great Unknown when it comes.

“Calm as a voyager to eome distant land And full of wonder, full of hope as he.” Said the anaesthetist to “Convalescent,” lying prone on the table: "Have vou ever tasted th.s stuff before. —No.

“It is like chocolate.”—Then give me some, p'.e-aso.

And he did. The pleasant-faced nurse—who in smiling showed an even set of teeth with sparkling gold idlings—placed a hand on the patient’s heart to note the pulsations. He put his hand on hers, and said, “What a warm, soft hand!” The rest to him was silence for an hour or two. The semi-resurrection took place in the Plunket ward, where two attentive and sympathetic nurses watched his recovery and attended to h:s wants. It was a major operation, and gave the “Convalescent” as clean a “ fall” as the most triumphant wrestler could claim —both shoulders on the mat,— and they were kept there tor a month without the luxury of sitting up or even turning on either side. Oh, the weariness of the constrained position through the long days and longer nights! There were, however, some crumbs of comfort to, be gathered from lemembering the admonition given oy la.go to Roderigo after the latter had been “ exceedingly well cudgelled ” by Cassio : “ How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” But, passing through this purgatory of discomfort, opened the door to the paradise of restored health and renewed strength. Under circumstances such as those patients return to a condition of infantile helplessness —to long clothes (pyjamas), feedingbottles, and swaddling-bands. On entering a ward all personal apparel is banished to the baggage room, and each patient is given a pyjama suit, with jackets that open behind. There is. of course, sufficient reason for this reversal of ordinary methods. The legendary Paddy from Cork buttoned his breeches behind to keep the front part of his anatomy warm, and hospital bed-jackets are fastened at the rear to facilitate the rubbing in of methylated spirits for the prevention of bod-sores. During this nursery treatment bandages and dressings are applied with necessary frequency to affected parts, and liquids can only bo imbibed through spouts of feeding-cups. Appreciative patients will apologise again and again for giving nurses so much trouble; but the cheerful response invariably is: “ Don’t you trouble, Jones” (no one is Mr’d in the wards). “What are wo here for?” It is under those -conditions of utter helplessness that patients realise to the full the value of the services rendered by the MINISTERING ANGELS, known officially as sisters and nurses. There are, of course, occasional grumblers in the Dunedin Hospital wards. No doubt such persons will eomplani if by good fortune they are translated to Abraham’s bosom ; but a general and harmonious chorus goes up to heaven in praise of these admirable attendants. The neatness of their uniform, their scrupulous cleanliness, their cheerful performance of many unpleasant duties by day and night, the care and skilfulness with which they dress wounds and renew bandages, betoken patience and enthusiasm in their calling. Tho alertness with which they wait on a ward full, and sometimes overcrowded, with patients from the time of their coming ha§k unconscious from operations to tbo day when, with tottering stops, they are convoyed by a nurse on each side from bed to sun-room, is worthy of heartfelt acknowledgment by all who can

speak from experience. The touching s'ght of these well-favoured, intelligent young women bending over rough men to catch whispered requests, speaking words of encouragement, putting cool hands on !< vi rish brows, adjusting pillows to weary heads, and making bods more comfortable, is a common one, but, nonetheless, noteworthy and unforgettable. Nearly all the nurses have Cordelia voices—“ soft, gentle, and low,” —a characteristic, wo are told on very high authority, that is “an excellent thing n a woman.” It is certainly indicative of a very desirable d sposition in the nursing profession. These graces and capacities to help the suffering are available to every patient without distinction or favour. The highest ctlrc of a trained nurse is to look upon ail their patients as “ cases ” that have to bo pulled through, end the interests of hospital doctors and nurses are necessarily identical. This attitude is well illustrated by a reply one of the nmses in the Plunked ward .gave when asked how a halfhealed wound looked. ‘‘Just lovely!’’ was the answer. A non-professional reply would, no doubt, be that of the spectators who saw Cowpcr’s mad dog take a mouthful out of the old gentleman’s calf—“ The wound it seemed both sore and sad to every Christian eye.” Wise selection und proper oversight arc the necessary precedents of the good nursing conditions to be found in the Dunedin Hospital. Besides the daily, almost hourly, inspection by resident and honorary medical officers, the matrons go their rounds by night and day, hearing reports from sisters in charge, and making kindly inquiries from patients themselves. With the knowledge of these favourable conditions existing in the noblest of Dunedin’s public institutions, it is hard to be-, lieve that money could buy better or more judicious treatment privately. One distinct advantage the well-to-do, treated in their own homos, would, however, enjoy—namely, the escape from unavoidable, and also preventable. HOSPITAL NOISES. There is an old saying that the best physicians are Dr Diet, Dr Quiet, and_ Dr Merryman. Patients in the Dunedin Hospital are well catered for. The food, somewhat roughly served, Is excellent in quality and abundant in quantity to those placed on full diet. Under other conditions the meals are regulated according to medical recommendations suited to individual cases. .At dinner time, as a matter of course, patients are not asked whether they prefer undercut or upper-cut. from a sirloin, or if they have a preference r or the liver, wing, or the breast of a fowl when they are on the poultry-list. The nurse who comes round the ward with a. ewer full of hot tea does not inquire whether your taste favours one lump of sugar or two. You hold out your cup or pasin, and take the goods the goddess provides. On the thick slices of machine-cut bread the butter (best Taieri) is spread somewhat unevenly; but that irregularity can be equalised by taking bites from ihe dry and the super-fluously-buttered parts alternately. The eggs at breakfast and tea will probably be hard-boiled; but they will not lie of the curate variety that are delicious only in parts. The spirit of Dr Merryman is very much in evidence, for, generally speaking, the patients are a happy family Even when confined to their beds, they amuse themselves by reading, letter-writing, playing patience or oribbage, and singing when they are, like Mark Tapley, lighthearted in spite of adverse crcumstances. The more industriously disposed roll bandages, mend hospital socks (following the rule that a stitch in time saves nine), sew the edges of binders,_ or put patches m pyjamas. How far this needlework would pass muster at a &ewing-bee may bo left to the imagination of lady readers. Those who are able to walk about form very valuable industrial units in the hospital community. They help in the distribution of cups and plates to their bed-riddon fellows, carry round food at meal times, do scullery work in the pantry, cut up the bread, and spread the butter, and, between whiles, wait on grateful patients in sundry good Samaritan ways. This co-operation contributes greatly to the comfort of the helpless, and takes some of the burden from the shoulders of the willing but, at times, hard-worked nurses.

Quietude does not reign in a hospital ward, and can hardly be looked for there. In private life, when there is serious sickness* in the house spent tan or straw is spread in tho street fronting the residence; door-knockers are muffled; residents go a bom, on tiptoe, and children are sent on visits to uncles pr.-d aunts. These precautions, it need hardly be said, cannot be taken in hospitals. The newly-admitt •* patient in Plunket ward will pass at first a few practically sleepless nights. He will hear most of the chimes from the Town Hall clock, and count the , hours round. All lights are put out at 8 o’clock; but his bed is strange to him, and the voices of the night arc many, unfamiliar, and disturbing. If a oatient at one end of the ward requires nocturnal attention, he calls out “ Nurse ” sufficiently loud to be heard by the attendant at the other end, or ho flashes the electric light three _ times, that being the recognised night signal of distress. The nurse on arrival has to fetch somewhat heavy folding screens, and place them around the patient’s cot. Nurses’ shoes are rubber-shod, and tho ward passageways are covered with cork linoleum; but even with these miniinisers bedside attendance cannot be noiseless, and such attendance is called for all night long at greater or loss intervals. Again, many patients suffer acutely at times, and cry out in their agony in a way that is distressing to the sympathetic and the lightly slumbering. On comparatively quiet nights the wakeful are disturbed by varieties of snoring from occupants of the 24 cots, some of whom would bo prize-takers at a nasal competition, whore discord would be counted as a desideratum. Outside noises add to -the unwelcome sounds. One wretched our of low, degree seems to, know when 2 o’clock in tho morning comes round, and sets up a yapping that is answered by other dogs in the neighbourhood. The canine chorus usually ends in a hideous howl that to the superstitions presages a death. These, with tile "frequent banging of doors on windy nights, may be regarded as largely unavoidable discomforts that must bo endured _ with tho best grace possible until familiarity makes them less distressing. The worst" disturbers of tho , peace are the thoughtless among the patients themselves. It seems incredible that this should be so ; but the fact remains that among the stronger men arc those who day after day bawl popular songs and choruses—“ Tipperary” among them, of course,—while dying, suffering, and distressed, patients arc close by, dozing probably after many hours of restlessness, or lying dazed and weak, with tho smell of chloroform that they have just brought from the operating theatre still upon them. At times the Plunket ward was more like a free-and-easy, or a smoke

soo.al, but much loss enjoyable than either. At such gataerings contributors to the harmony arc usually selected because of their iHUfsic.il abilities; but ward-per-formers show a plentiful -ack of muse oi elocution. Ihe presence of half a dozen ooys indulging in whistling, fife-playing, and shouting, or careering round the wards and passages on wheei -chairs provided for pat'ents who are unable to walk, add to the disturbances that are out of place, and should bo checked. It will be remembered fhat when the survivors from the EinJeii were brought so Australia the crowds that lined the approaches to the landing-places were enjoined not to cheer, because there wore so many desperately-wounded prisoners on board, ft ho captives keenly appreciated the forbearance shown them.' Yet some heedless Dunedin Hospital patients, scarred by tlicur own healed or healing wounds, are lamentably regardless of the comfort of those who have weeks of suffering before them,' and behave as boisterously as if they wore in camp or in a playground. The only place of escape fiom those disturbances during the day is in the open-air balconies provided tor three years ago cut of Hospital Saturday funds. 'lhe northern half is partitioned off for the open-air treatment- of consumptives, and the other half patients are forbidden to use.