Suggestions on a system of nursing for hospitals in India / [Florence Nightingale].

  • Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestions on a system of nursing for hospitals in India / [Florence Nightingale]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    would beset Nurses of all grades in India, and the consequent danger that the Govern¬ ment might thus lose the services of persons who had been trained and conveyed thither at great cost. A certain term of service in India might be made a condition of employ¬ ment, but if this condition were violated by marriage, dismissal from the service would be no punishment, and would not even involve any sacrifice which the Nurse had not predetermined to make. A breach of the contract might no doubt involve certain penalties, which might be enforced by legal proceedings, but there would probably be a disinclination to prosecute, or, in case of prosecution, to convict or to give adequate damages. Perhaps the best course might be to annex a specified pecuniary penalty to breach of the contract, by marriage or otherwise, the amount to diminish with each year of service actually performed in India. This might go far to reimburse the Government for the loss of service, and might incline both the Nurse and her suitor to postpone their nuptials until the stipulated term of service should have been completed, for I presume that the husband, on his marriage, would become liable for the amount of the penalty, being a debt due by his wife. If the attempt to supply the Hospitals of India with female Nurses is not to be a failure, it is plain that it must be made on some organized plan, which, being based on a stable foundation, may be expected to give permanence and efficiency to the system. Were it as easy to find competent Matrons and Head Nurses as it is to find female mill workers, it may be questioned whether it would be advisable to send out a ship load of them at once, to be scattered over the country from Cape Comorin to Peshawur. To place the majority thus beyond the control and guidance of the heads of their own very special department, would be not only to exclude all hope of efficient and uniform organization, but almost to ensure the failure of the majority of them, and with it a discreditable break down of the whole system. But this is a danger that cannot be incurred, for the Nurses do not exist, and years must elapse before a sufficient number can be “ made ” to supply the Hospitals of India. There is therefore ample time and opportunity to devise a suitable scheme and to pursue it in a tentative manner, correcting and adjusting it as the experiments are being worked out. At how many stations in India it wrould be desirable to institute such tentative trials of nursing would depend not only on the local circumstances, but also on the number of competent and snitable persons who could be selected in this country to carry out the scheme. It would be better to begin with one wrell selected establishment, sufficient only for one Hospital, than to attempt more than one with more doubtful materials. Much —no one can foresee how much—will depend upon the success of the first attempt. The value of the whole will, in public estimation, be determined by the quality of the first sample that is exhibited. Then the question arises, if there is, at starting, to be only one Hospital nursed, which Hospital ought it to be ? There can be no doubt that it ought to be where it will be under the fostering care of the Governor General. Success at Calcutta would probably carry with it public opinion all over India, and would therefore be of greater value than success anywhere else. But assuming that the Government is satisfied that female nursing ought to be provided for the Hospitals of India, and considering that the Government must be the ultimate judges of success or failure, there is no neces¬ sity or good reason wThy eclat should be desired; and, on the other hand, in carrying out such an experiment it is but just and right, seeing how many difficulties must in any circumstances be encountered, that it should be tried in the circumstances most favour¬ able to success. If it succeeds, the experience acquired there will enable you to extend it, under less favourable circumstances, with a better prospect of success. In beginning new things we commence with the easier, and having mastered these, proceed to the more difficult. But this is a question the ultimate decision of which must rest with the Governor General.