Subsidiary Notes as to the Introduction of Female Nursing into Military Hospitals in Peace and WarNightingale, Florence
History
Subsidiary Notes as to the Introduction of Female Nursing into Military Hospitals in Peace and War
Nightingale, Florence
Military hospitals -- Great Britain; Nurses -- Great Britain
The Matron should be able to draw from the Purveyor, on her own indent,
with the sanction of the Governor of the Hospital, such rations and
extras as she may consider necessary for the Nursing establishment, and
make the arrangements for cooking. In the United Kingdom the Matron
should be able to make arrangements, subject to the approval of the
Superintendent-General, for commuting rations for mess-money, not pay.
The Governor is responsible for the sufficiency of all supplies
and none ought to be expended, without his sanction. This might be
indispensable, if there were danger that supplies might run short.
[Sidenote: Opinion as to Governor’s jurisdiction over Nurses.]
Upon both these latter points, supposing the Governor of a General
Hospital to exist, he must have power to maintain the discipline of the
Hospital, in all its Departments, as a General commanding a division
has, in regard to every regiment composing it. But he ought to exercise
it only through the Matron, as commanding a corps. He must also have
power to require the exclusion from the Hospital of any Nurse whose
conduct he may find to be inconsistent with maintenance of discipline,
and this power he would enforce, on his own responsibility, by
directing the Matron to remove the offending Nurse from the Hospital.
The conduct of the Nurse would become the subject of investigation
afterwards, in terms of the established regulations. But practically
such a case could hardly occur, unless by the fault of the Matron, who
would, of her own accord, desire to remove a Nurse, on being satisfied
that such a measure was necessary or expedient. It would be proper,
too, both for her own justification and for the maintenance of the
Governor’s supremacy in the Hospital, that the Matron should obtain
his concurrence in the removal of a Nurse from the Hospital. The
proceedings, in all such cases, would, of course, be reported by the
Matron to the Superintendent-General.
Whether the Governor has the power of removing the Matron, who clearly
and properly ranks among the officers under him, should be settled and
not left to be disputed about in a distant station. At all events,
if he has this power over her, it must be guarded, as extending only
to suspension from office, in cases of alleged flagrant neglect or
misconduct, till the whole matter can be remitted and decided on by the
Superintendent-General.
[Sidenote: 17. Nurses’ Wages.]
17. Generally, as to the question of wages and pensions, a regulation
that Nurses shall have a small annual increase of wages is better than
one giving an increase after five or three years.
[Sidenote: Efficiency of Nurses does not increase by springs and
starts, like Grasshoppers.]
Efficiency does not go by starts and springs, like grasshoppers, but
makes “a small annual increase,” like the wages proposed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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