Subsidiary Notes as to the Introduction of Female Nursing into Military Hospitals in Peace and War

by Florence Nightingale

(3.) That it dries completely within ten minutes from being wet-rubbed.

(4.) That a woman, standing, can thoroughly clean a ward with some hours less time, and greatly less fatigue, than scrubbing.

(5.) That wet scrubbing is sometimes and ought to be always forbidden and dry rubbing substituted, on the score of the unhealthiness of scrubbing.

(6.) That it would relieve us of all external scrubbers in the Nurses’ own rooms. Each Nurse would sweep, wet-brush and dry-brush her bed-room and day-room herself, daily, would once-a-week give a little extra wash, and would wash the wooden skirting which runs along the bottom of the walls. As the bed-room must be tiny and the day-room small (it would be better if we could keep to one room, which would take a quarter of an hour daily, and the grand weekly purification not more than one hour, even to a slow performer) a short time daily and a moderate time weekly will do it.

One disadvantage of this very simple, very efficient, and excellent flooring is, that it shows scratches. Furniture must always be lifted, not dragged. In a Military Hospital where men are always at hand, this would matter less as to the wards, and the Nurses could help each other once a week in their bed-rooms, and manage alone in their day-rooms.

There are four other examples of this flooring in Berlin Hospitals.

(1.) Bethesda Siechenhaus, a small old house, about to be rebuilt and enlarged, in a suburb of Berlin, where three Deaconesses, with a man and woman servant, take excellent care of about forty infirm old women and imbecile children. These patients, of the class to be found in the infirmary wards of our workhouses, move about little, and have few visitors, so that the flooring, which is the same as at Bethanien, is less used.

(2.) St. Hedwig’s Hospital, where 250 male and female medical and surgical patients are nursed by Roman Catholic Sisters of St. Charles Borromæus (head quarters at Nancy), with female servants and male nurses. The house is new; the flooring the same as at Bethanien. The Superior, an intelligent German, speaks much of its excellence for hospital purposes; it is being introduced, though as yet very partially, into France.

(3.) The great Charité Hospital, the town-hospital for 1,200 patients, spite its French name. It consists of two buildings; the old one, used in winter; and a splendid new one, into which all the patients, except the lunatics and the small-pox and the venereal cases, are moved for the six summer months. The flooring throughout is of the same wood (deal) as at Bethanien, but has much more laque. The more laque is used, the brighter the floor shines, but the sooner it requires re-oiling and laque varnishing. The Charité floors are re-oiled with laque every year; they are cleaned in the same way as at Bethanien, only with more dry rubbing. On bad days, when the numerous students have passed through, the ward floors occasionally require to be cleaned; but, in general, even on these occasions, it is enough to sweep them, and to clean the next morning as usual.