HOSPITAL MATRON

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 56, 19 July 1940, Page 40

HOSPITAL MATRON

T wasn’t like a great public hospital -more like a big business building -with the clerks behind their plateglass sliding windows-and the long bare corridors. The hurrying crowds of people who entered and passed out through the swing doors added to the illusion. The only distinguishing trait was that all of them bore parcels or baskets of some description. Then one got a hint-a young man came out of a side office swinging a stethoscope in his hand. Further on one came upon a hurrying nurse, her red cape a flag of colour over her white apron. Round : another bend one came upon a_ white-coated attendant wheeling an empty stretcher. One climbed a flight of stairs-and then the unmistakable odour of hospital drifted to one’s nostrils — iodoform — pungent, antiseptic. . Everybody Busy There was evidence now to the eye. Through every doorway a vista of crowded wards. A glimpse of sterile dressing rooms, X-Ray and Massage Rooms, the Clinics, the Dental Room, and the Outdoor Department. One drifted on, bewildered by this sudden transition from office to hospital life. It was as busy ‘and ordered as an ant’s kingdom. Everyone darting about, intent on his own business. One marvelled at the complete orderliness of it all. Those busy nurses and attendants-all contributing towards one single objectivethe care of the sick, and alleviation of pain. Well, it was a business, after alla great office-inspired by mercy. Convalescent patients wandered along the corridors-still with the pallor of recent experience on their faces. On beds in side cubicles, prone figures; apathetic, fretful, many faces drawn with pain. It hung over everything. Pain, The Babies’ Ward A turn of the corridor brought me into a small ward. The beds here were so (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) tiny. It was the babies’ ward. I wandered round, heart-sick, unbelieving. Infants, but a few months. old, lying there so quiet and unprotesting in their little beds. I stopped by one cot. Two big blue eyes looked up at me with a strange expression. I tried to read that look, but it was beyond me. So steadfast, so quiet, so uncomplaining. Through the children’s ward, where tiny tots lay still or played in their cots. Then a further flight of stairs and I was at the Matron’s office. It had been a strange pilgrimage through those corridors of pain — and here I was thrust back to the business building again. Another Illusion Dispelled A trim, efficient little office, with a white-uniformed figure smiling at me inquiringly across the desk. Matron. My first impression was that this friendly, motherly-looking woman appeared anything but a terror-as hospital matrons are supposed to be, Here was a woman, kindly, tolerant, understanding, a product of our age. "Well, now," she said, "you'll have to ask me questions. I’m afraid I won't know what to say otherwise." We drifted into conversation. It was not a questionnaire-nor was it a standard interview. We just talked.

T learnt something of the Matron’s job. To my untrained mind it seemed colossal. There were five hundred nurses under her care and training-and this very day they had passed the thousandth mark in their number of patients, "1,001, to be correct," said. Matron, with pride in her voice, "our top figure to date." ‘ I thought of my long pilgrimageand could well believe it, Nurses Then and Now "Tell me about the girls, Matronthe trainees. How do you think they compare with the ‘nurses of your own day?" "More than favourably." There was conviction in her words. "They are so young-so eager and so willing. I love their youngness. They have such a zestful and such a wholesome outlook on life-maybe, through the outside interests they sustain, dancing, sport, and so on. Their outlook is reflected in the patients -it actually helps the sick people, would you believe

that? They are so very kind to their patients, too, so gentle and so under-standing-for such young things. I am so fond of them." Twenty-five Years’ Nursing * About yourself, Matron. How long have you been nursing?" "A long time," she answered thoughtfully, "twenty-five years. I began my training here during the last war-and left to become first Matron of the Karitane Home, Then I returned here-like coming home it was-and, well, I have been here ever since." | "Conditions are different now?" "Oh, vastly. For example we never had any days off when I was trainingwe didn’t even expect any. Now the girls have one day off a week. Things are so much better for them." " What does a Matron do in her spare time-and as an individual?" I asked. She smiled, her head to one side, considering. "Plays golf and tennis-and I’m rather a fiend for contract bridge-for mental exercise-but then, I get very little time to play." — One thousand-and-one patients — and five hundred nurses! I could well_believe it.