The workhouse and its medical officer / by Alfred Sheen.

  • Sheen, Alfred.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The workhouse and its medical officer / by Alfred Sheen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    NURSING. In all workhouses of any size there are a large number of sick, and these patients should always he tended by nurses who have had some training. Pauper nurses are altogether a snare and delusion, and should never be employed except as helps to a responsible nurse. This matter of nursing is in a very different position now to what it was twenty years ago, thanks to the Lancet Commission of Enquiry in the first instance, and to the subsequent gradual education of public opinion and of Poor Law Guardians. There are possibly some workhouses which still go on in the old groove—may their number yearly decrease. The Medical Officer has much power in improving any defects in nursing, and if he will use his power with tact and discretion, nothing but good can follow. It is a part of his duty to report “ every defect he may observe in the arrangements of the infirmary or sick wards,” and if he does this judiciously, he will have little difficulty in gradually bringing about salutary improvements in the nursing arrangements. He may rely on the Local Government Board Inspector to back him up—as a rule. In 1877 we had only one paid Nurse for upwards of 150 sick. Now, we have one Superin- tendent Trained Nurse, with five female, and one male, Under-Nurses, for 300 sick and infirm, and the liursing is carried out very satisfactorily. The female under-nurses take the night nursing in turn for a period of six weeks each.