13. Endeavour, if possible, to obtain a classification of the severe and non-severe cases, and let the Nurses be only appointed to the wards of severe cases. The convalescent cases to be successively removed to the convalescent pavilions, whether they bear or not that name. No convalescent ward in any of the floors of the Pavilions to be served by Nurses.
14. Nurses to be called by the Names of their Wards.
14. It will be found excellent in many respects not to allow the Nurses’ names to be used in the ward of the Hospital, or among each other, so far as the Matron takes cognizance of. In the great London Hospitals the name of a Nurse is never heard, except occasionally to each other as a solace, partly very natural, partly harmless vanity. She is Sister or Nurse of such and such a ward. In hasty parlance she is distinguished from the others by the name of the ward only. In it she is always addressed as Sister or Nurse.
Thus a Sister of St. Thomas’s Hospital, whose services in the War Hospitals of the East I can never forget, was always at St. Thomas’s spoken of out of her ward as Sister of George, or, more commonly, Sister George; and spoken to quickly or called to in a hurry as George.
All this, the only course of all the great and, I believe, of the smaller London Hospitals, works excellently, in many ways.
15. Foul Linen—how to be Disposed of.
15. Arrangements should be made that foul linen remains for the least possible time out of the laundry. As regards the laundry deposits, the best plan is that of the London Hospital, where each ward has a bin of its own marked accordingly. To similar bins all the foul linen should be, at least, daily carried, unless it is judged best to receive and wash all the linen in a heap, returning numbers only to each ward. The former plan is preferable. In any case the linen of the “foul wards” should be received and washed apart. During the time, which ought to be as short as possible, between dirty linen leaving the patients and reaching the bin or bins, a large box in the scullery is making the best of a bad business—the presence of foul Hospital linen always is that—and is preferable to a closet.
16. Washing Bandages.
16. Washing bandages, a very important thing. Shall a washerwoman be told off for that particular purpose? or shall the Orderlies of each ward do it alla meglio? The former is the better plan; if not adopted, the Nurse must see well to the matter.
17. Splints—Bandages, Lint, &c., where to be kept.