Furniture.
17. The nurses’ rooms should be supplied with plain comfortable furniture. In the large Hospitals the head-nurse furnishes her own room or rooms, which doubtless promotes her comfort and her care of the furniture, both desirable things; yet the tendency of many to accumulate decorations, which take time to clean, &c., is a drawback. I should be inclined, as an experiment, to try the furnishing plan, or at least to have some scale as to furniture allowed. A bed, arm-chair, and sofa; a chest of drawers, wash-hand table or shelf; book-case or shelves; a little table, and a larger one, a couple of chairs, a footstool, and a cupboard with broad shelves, are the utmost that can be required.
Visitors.
18. A difficult and important point to settle is the amount of liberty allowed as to receiving visits. It is desirable on all accounts to make head-nurses and nurses feel comfortable, and, as it were, at home: it is also better they should not be unnecessarily out; also London distances are great, and even omnibus-fare is a consideration; also it is important to remember that these women are apt to feel and say: “We are not in a nunnery,” nor should they be. Still upon the whole, considering the nuisance of ordinary visitors, and the greater nuisance of extraordinary (e. g., visitors to some head-nurses, kind friends come to see how we are getting on, &c., &c., &c.), I think if it were possible to make the rule that no visitors are allowed, it would be a great gain. I am not sure, at present, whether it is possible or not—still less whether it is possible to keep such a rule, if made. But, at all events, nurses and head-nurses should only be permitted to receive visitors on certain days and hours of the week; and those hours and days should be strictly kept to. In Military Hospitals a still more rigid rule will be necessary.
Discharged Patients.
19. No discharged patients, however previously well-conducted, should be allowed to visit the wards.
Graduated scale of Pensions.
20. Apart from raising the wages of good nurses after every ten years’ service, I think it would well answer to establish a graduated scale of pensions, for both head-nurses and nurses; beginning with a small pension after ten years’ good service, increasing every five years afterwards. Many women are quickly worn out in this life; and it is equally undesirable to turn faithful worn-out servants adrift without any provision, or to retain them in duties for which they are become unfit. It is a question whether there should not be a compulsory stoppage from wages, in order to entitle the nurses to pension under conditions.
No occasional Wards.
21. Have no occasional wards, or wards for accidental and peculiar patients.