In the Journals

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume VI, Issue 3, 1 July 1913, Page 125

In the Journals

There have been many very interesting papers and reports in the various nursing journals since our last publication. In St. John's Hospital Magazine, of April, there is an account of the Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital for incipient mental disease in connection with the John Hopkin Hospital, Baltimore. This should interest the New Zealand nurses as the establishment of such departments at the chief hospitals of the Dominion is very strongly advocated by Dr. Valintine. Alas, we have few great philanthropists in New Zealand to donate sums of money sufficient for such magnificient quarters and equipment as has been provided by Mr. Henry Phipps at Baltimore. # # * * * * An account of Red Cross Rural Nursing is very interesting. The nursing corresponds to our backblock nursing. The organisation unelertaken by the Red Cross Society is in many ways similar to that carrieel out here by the Hospital Boards with the assistance of the Health and Hospital Department, and which it is hoped to develop by degrees into a network of nursing aid throughout the Dominion. $ ij 1 ifc % ifc ♦ A very interesting account is given in the " Queen Nurses Magazine," of nursing in the Balkans, in letters from Sister Katherine Wheatley, who was engaged in aelministering a relief fund on behalf of the British Red Crescent Society, she writes : " If only the people at home would or could realise the condition of these poor mothers and babies I am sure they would help ; but no one can realise it until they have seen it. What we calljcomfort for them is not more than seven families in one room, each with a small piece of matting, and perhaps three mangals (charcoal stoves) between the seven, one blanket foi two or three people." " I rode round and inspected about 58 families, all in. the direst need and poverty. Five families in a stable with the donkeys with absolutely nothing ; fifteen families in a shelter built of brush wood ; thirty people in one room ; two women dying in an outhouse ; one without a garment on h^r,

and a month old baby beside her almost lifeless body (I took the baby and gave it to the other woman), and many more beside.

' I fed with my own hand 700 people, and clothed (partially) 500 . . . Have been in the saddle since 7.30 a.m. Nothing but horses would have been any use to us, the roaels are terrible . . . Women threw themselves at my horse's feet, and men blessed us."

This is a short part of a terrible story. What a privilege to have been sent to he.p these poor people who suffer such misery that people of the poorest in this land cannot realise. *i* *fC *fi *** T* T* In a recent American journal cf nursing, the question of Nurses quarters is dealt with, and quite a revolutionary idea is suggested' — that is, the future nurses will not be provided with quarters in their training schools, but will, as students do outside the hospital, recruits paying for their own accommodation anel attending at the hospital only for their hours on duty. From the point of view of the hospital, this scheme no doubt would have its advantages. The lessened need of expenditure for the accommodation of its nurses, the lessened need of thought and care for their comfort would greatly lighten the burden laid upon those responsible for hospital administration.

On the side of the probationer quite the contrary ; we can see no possible advantage. The gain in personal freedom would be more than counterbalanced by the loss, except perhaps in the case of those who have their own homes near their hospital, of personal comfort and safety. The discipline so necessary for the formation of the good, and reliable nurse, could not be carried out under such conditions. )j£ Sf£ SJC i\£ *f» *|£

Anti-Typhoid Vaccination for Hospital Nurses.

From Australasian Nurses' Journal.

In the course of her work a nurse runs many risks of infection from the patient

she is attending. Constantly we hear of the lives of physicians, surgeons, and nurses being sacrificed to the exigencies of their profession. While surgeons are threatened principally by septic injuries during the course of their work, the disease which preeminently threatcns^the nurse is typhoid fever. On looking through the records of one of our large metropolitan hospita 7 s where typhoid cases are being continually admitted we find that during the six-year period, 1904-1910, twenty-one cases of typhoid fever occurred among nurses. Of these, six died, or very nearly thirty per cent. which is far above the average mortality of typhoid patients. In the hospital from which tiicsa figures are taken, every precaution agcinst infection hael been trie el ; gloves were worn in dealing with excreta anel linen, overalls put on to protect clothes, the excreta themselves were immediately saturated with disinfectant, and so on, but in spite of this, tlie dissasa continually appeareel among the nurses. It was about 1910 that anti-typhoid vaccination was first practised, and all the nursas were vaccinated against typhoid. Since then no single case of typhoid has occurred among the nursing staff. Nor are these results unique. In the British Army the disease is ten times more frequent in the unvaccinated. The inconvenience of the vaccination is trivial, and we think it behoves all nurses to be vaccinated for their own protection. In recommending vaccination we in no way infer that the ordinary precautions may be dispensed Avith, but consider that vaccination, in addition to orelinary precautions, makes an almost complete defence against the disease. In the unusual instances in which the disease eioes occur in the vaccinated it is generally of a very miid type. We hope the day is not far distant when vaccination against typhoiel will be made compulsory for all nurses attached to a hospital in which the disease is treateel.

****** From the American Journal of Nursing.

Immunization Against Typhoid. — The Department of Health of New York City has been prepared since January 1 to make without charge preventive inoculations to immunize against typhoid. On the occur-

rence of a cas3 of typhoid, free immunization is offered to every member of the family of the patient and to those who have been in contact with him. It is hoped that this will reduce the occurrence of the disease in the city. * % * * ♦ ♦ Autotyphoid Inoculation Amongst Nurse?. — Dr. John W. Brannan, Of New York, reports in the Medical Record the innoculation of some 200 hospital nurses and also about 50 members of the house staffs against typhoid. There were a few severe reactions, more marked among the men than among th.3 women. Not more than three nurses asked to be relieved from duty for a day, whereas several of the internes were laid up for as much as two days at a time with temperatures ranging as high as 102°, rapid puls3, nausea, vomiting, severe headache, and pain in the back. These inoculations were begun in June. Early in November a pupil nurse contracted typhoid in Bellevue Hospital. She was one of seven who had refused innoculation. Of 83 who had accepted the typhoid prophylactic but one acquired the disease, though they were all more or less exposed to infection.

We reprint the above extracts to bring before the nurses of the Dominion the great need there is for them to weigh carefully the advice therein contained. The matter has been brought before the Hospital authorities in New Zealanel by the Inspector General, who recognises the great risk continually run by nurses in atteneling typhoiel cases. During the great epidemic of enteric fever in Aucklanel in if we remember right v, 1908, 12 or 13 nurses contracteel the disease one of whom died. During the last few years we have lost three valued lives, Nurse Akenehi Hei, Nurse Parker and a young Maori girl, training at the Gisborne Hospital. Many more have been very seriously ill ; during this year at least a dozen nurses.

It is to be hopeel that Hospital anel Health Authorities will afford every possible facility for nurses to be made immune against typhoiel. We feel sure this is a duty the Public Health Department will be fully prepared to elischarge.