ON PROBATION

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 4 December 1914, Page 3

ON PROBATION

HELLING OF THE HARD LOT OF THE HOSPITAL BEGINNER.

It is the rule with most hospitals -^* that before • any woman is definitely accepted to train for a nursing career, she shall go first of all on a three months' trial to prove if she is suited for the work. The general opinion of nurses and mcdi- ' cal men is that a w'omi-ai who is | strong enough to hear the strain of I this trial three months, is strong enough to stand almost anything! Though it sounds like an absurd paradox, it is the undoubted truth that the hardest-worked women in the hospital are those who know the j least about, and have the slightest j experience of nursing. - N The woman who becomes a hospiN^ al probationer without having a -•"'" JtfW' eep love for the work—without w'%J^v -being really inspired to become a nurse—will find the life full of incessant sacrifice of time and strength will find it also a life of terribly hard and exacting work. FROM THE FIRST. I'Vom the very first day that a . M-obationer arrives at her hospital she is expected to know how to do - ■-S-,-' -hi"RS in exactly the right way— where to go, what to do, and how to do it. No excuses are made for inexperience or ignorance. The probationer who makes a mistake during the first week of her training is as severely reprimanded as if she were on the last week ,of her three years at the hospital. A nurse is not allowed to make any mistakes —be she experienced or inexperienced, it matters not. Take the case of a hospital probationer who is upon night duty. Though under the nominal supervision of a staff Sister, who has charge of a second ward, the nurse is wholly responsible in reality, for i the ward to which she is appointed; and it means a big responsibility. The night-duty nurse works from eight in the evening until half-past eight in the morning. Real hard work it is, including the cleaning of lamps, taps, inkpots, and other ' such odd things ; scrubbing the . bath-room and dressers. She usually has to take the temperatures of all patients abput eleven o^'clock. and generally attend .to any special or- ~ ders that have been given to her by the doctor, while being ever on the alert, to notice any sudden change in any patient. NURSES AND STUDENTS. At a quarter ta five the night nurse prepares to wash the patients, take temperatureslagain, make beds, sweep, dust, and generally set her, ward in perfect order against _-i&* arrival of the day nurse. The *T^ day nurse comes at eight o'clock, and assists in the serving of the patients' breakfasts, though these are almost wholly prepared by the nurse on the night duty. The probationer who is on day X duty has to work equally hard, though possibly there is less straincertainly less responsibility—attendant upon her work. Any scrubbing and cleaning that is necessary must be done, the ward •^ must be kept in perpetual order, patients must be washed, temperatures taken, and meals prepared all at exactly the right times. Moreover, in a hospital to which is attached no medical school, the junior nurses are frequently called upon to do students' work—look on and . learn, .and in many ways to assist the surgeon at sundry operations that are performed in the hospital. ONE LONG STRAIN. It is a great mistake to think that the woman who enters upon the training for a nurse is entering upon a life of romance and roseleaves. And people who talk of the hard life of this and of that type of woman worker, would often be - . silent if they could compare their ""Instances with the typical hard lot of the hospital probationer. Her life is one long strain—mental and physical ; a life that must be a labour of love, for the monetary gains are infinitesimal—£B to £10 a year. It is one of the little ironies of life that the women who do most selfsacrificial and noblest work, in the m| world are paid at rates that are : little short of an in&ult. ■-N=£jr - \Maybe it is a hard life, yet sure---iyit is a very happy one for the woman who was meant by Nature to be a nurse and who is .strong enough to work through to the day when she ceases to be a. probationer—or, as a recently qualified nurse succinctly remarked ; "When someone else has to do the i^f***''*'*"'--' scrubbing and brass-cleaning ]" — "Answers."