Hospital plans : five essays relating to the construction, organization & management of hospitals / contributed by their authors for the use of the Johns Hopkins hospital of Baltimore.

  • Johns Hopkins Hospital
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hospital plans : five essays relating to the construction, organization & management of hospitals / contributed by their authors for the use of the Johns Hopkins hospital of Baltimore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    one year, and sliould be required to give some pledge to con- tinue tlie full term. The time at vvliich. the service of each should exj)ire, sliould be so arranged that there should always be two in office who have had six months service ; and never less than two should be in the house at any moment, as patients may be brought at all hours requiring the service of more than one. Telegraphic connection with the central police station, or a district telegraph office, should be established to facilitate the instantaneous summoning of the surgeon or pliysician-in-chief in case of emergency. An honorable certificate of the fact suitably engrossed and signed by the president and secretary, should be the meed of those residents who serve faithfully the entire term for which they were appointed. NUESES. In this connection as subservient to the same interests the ar- rangements for nursing may properly claim attention. No pro- ficiency in science, nor skill in its application by the possessor, can dispense with faithful, intelligent nursing. This faithful- ness and intelligence is to be brought to bear on the case, not by proficiency in medical knowledge, but simply by that peculiar quaMcation which is known as tact; which gives superiority to those who possess it in whatever sphere of life they move. A nurse possessed of common sense and faithfulness in the per- formance of duty, with this tact, is greatly to be preferred to one instructed in the principles of medicine, never so thoroughly, without these. The establishment of a school for training female nurses is one of the objects provided for by Mr. Hopkins. It is an impor- tant adjunct to the hospital; and if properly conducted will furnish invaluable assistance for the proper cure of the patients, and it should certainly be in the building. There is much need for practical training in the art of nursing, even in the case of those ]possessing a natural adaptation for the service. Gentle- ness and tenderness of manner may be cultivated; the proper mode of exercising control and manifesting firmness may be taught; the mode of administering medicines, of making apj^li- cation of dressings of various forms and kinds, of attending to the wants ; of relieving the suffering produced by weariness, by