Report of the Royal Commission on the practice of subjecting live animals to experiments for scientific purposes : with minutes and evidence and appendix / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of her Majesty.

Great Britain. Royal Commission on Vivisection (1875)

Date:: 1876

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the practice of subjecting live animals to experiments for scientific purposes : with minutes and evidence and appendix / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

1036/1052 (page 606)

$III. Stru-ctural Arrangements in Hospitals required for Efficient Nursing. One essential condition of good infirmary discipline is that the Matron and her nursing stafl should have their own special quarters within the precincts of the hospital buildiiTg. No women, be she Superintendent, Head Nurse, Nurse, night Nurse, or Scrubber, employed about the patients should be boarded or lodged else- where than in the building. The night Nurses should sleep where they v\'ill be undisturbed by day. Every N arse ought to have, if not a small room, a compartment to herself. The Matron's authority, for obvious reasons, must be supreme in these quarters. A good nursing staff will perform their duties more or less satisfactorily, under every disadvantage. But while doing so, their head will always try to improve their surroundings in such a way as to liberate them from subsidiary work, and to enable them to devote their time more exclusively to the care of the sick. This is, after all, the real purpose of their being there at all, not to act as lifts, water-carriers, beasts of burben, or steam engines—articles whose labour can be had at vastly less cost than that of educated human beings. Hence certain ward conveniences foi'm absolutely essential parts of the machineiy required to economise the time of good Nurses. These have been or are being pro- vided in all the more recent hospitals and asylums, both at home and abroad, in pauper lunatic asylums, in asylums for the infirm and aged, in nearly eveiy civilised country ; in countries, too, where labour has a much lower market value than in our own. The general object of these conveniences is to simplify and facilitate work and to enable the Superintendent to systematise and economise the l^ibour of her staff by knoAving the conditions under which it has to be performed. [E.g,, lifts and the laying of hot and cold water all over a building will economise the labour of at least one attendant to every 30 patients ; this is but a small instance.] It would be a great mistake to turn an efficient nursing corps into a building unprovided with reasonable means for performing their duty. A Head Nurse cannot always be in her ward. She must have a small room, with fire and furniture, where she sleeps at night (for a Head Nurse must command her ward day and night), takes her meals, inspects her ward through a small inspection-windovr, keeps her ward records, kc. Each ward should have, besides, a small scullery vv^ith sink, and hot and cold vrater laid on; with small range for making poultices, preparing fomentations, warming diets and drinks, &c. ifcc. This scullery ought to be made sufficiently comfortable for the Ward Nurses to take their meals in. It has a great advantage, in pi^eventing gossip, &c., when each separate Ward Staff has its own separate dining and sleeping accommodation, so that the Ward ' Sister' may always know where her Nurses are. Where there is a Training School the Probationers will, however, probably have a dining room of their own ; and it may be better in that case that the Nurses should all, also, dine together, though in tvvo detachments. But, whatever the arrangements, they must be all under the moral control of the Matron. She must be responsible for the government of her Nurses, both on and off duty. The ward sink is intended for washing up small ward equipments, e.g., cups, saucers, mugs, spoons, and the like. A separate sink must be provided close to the ward W.C., into which the Nurse can empty bed-pans, slops, expectoration cups, and the like. Each ward must be provided with its own crockery, wash-hand basins, cups, and saucers, &c. A very essential part of nursing is care of the linen ; and this must always be committed to the Matron (Superintendent). This duty requires a linen and mending room, conveniently situated, from Avhich clean linen can be given out for the daily ' use of the wards, and into which clean linen should be received from the wash to be mended and stored. Probably patients' clothing will have to be included. In large*^ Hospitals the Matron may possibly require a Linen Nurse to assist her in addition to her Housekeeper. Of course each ward Avill have its proper W.C.'s and Lavatories, with hot and cold water laid on, and a fixed bath—conveniences Avhich are as necessary for the clue treatment of the sick as for their nursing. Number of beds Till the last few years in England, though not so in France, it has been very little per ward. considered how much the cost of ejjic lent nursing varies according to the size and distribution of wards. A Head Nurse can efficiently supervise, a night Nurse can carefully watch, 32 beds in one ward, whereas, with 32 beds in four wards, it is quite impossible. Again, distribution of duties is so important, if you wish for efficiency, that it is difficult to believe that such a rule as this once existed—one Nurse to be responsible for the sole charge of say, 10 patients. Was she to do everything for them day and night ? Of course this was impossible. If she were a Head Nurse, it was waiting her$