Hospitals, dispensaries and nursing : papers and discussions in the International congress of charities, correction and philanthropy, section III, Chicago, June 12th to 17th, 1893 / ed. by John S. Billings, M.D., Henry M. Hurd, M.D.

  • International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy (1893 : Chicago).
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hospitals, dispensaries and nursing : papers and discussions in the International congress of charities, correction and philanthropy, section III, Chicago, June 12th to 17th, 1893 / ed. by John S. Billings, M.D., Henry M. Hurd, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    637/850 (page 513)
    PROPER ORGANIZATION OF TRAINING SCHOOLS IN AMERICA. By Miss Louise Darche, Superintendent of New York City Training School, Matron of City and Maternity Hospitals. In this present age of charities and philanthropy, when the care of the sick, the insane, and the destitute occupies so prominently the thought and attention of a benevolently disposed public, the building of hospitals and the management of hospitals have become one of the leading questions of the day. The improved methods of caring for the sick, as introduced by the training-school system of nursing, are generally acknowledged, and I think rightly acknowledged, as one of the prime factors in bringing about the wide-spread and intelligent interest now so generally felt in hospital work. With the higher intelligence and skill introduced by this method of nursing came the knowledge of higher possibilities of hospital development. Doctors were not slow to grasp the idea that a system and science in the treatment of the sick could now be intro- duced which before, owing to the low order of intelligence and the poor education of the old-time nurse, were impossible ; that accurate reports, exact obedience, cleanliness and order came with the new nurse, and that inquiry and research into new fields could now be ventured upon, based on a knowledge gained from treatment faith- fully carried out and as faithfully recorded. This improvement in the nursing when brought about first received the notice and then the encouragement of the attending physicians and surgeons under whose observation the trial was first made. The change also soon made its impression upon the hospital authorities, when it was demonstrated that where noise and unseemly altercation had prevailed in the management of unruly patients, peace and quiet now reigned, and the so-called unruly patient seemed to dis- appear and become a thing of the past simultaneously with the disappearance of the old-time way of nursing and the old-time nurse. The news of this improvement in the condition of the hospital wards and the care of the hospital patients, as a result of the introduction of the training-school system, in a very short time became generally known to the outside world. The friends of the patients told of it, visiting ladies and others interested in hospital work reported it,