Night-duty of Orderlies.
20. Convalescent wards, which will be of great use in many ways, will be of use here. With them Nurses will have nothing to do. It is possible enough that, in course of time, the Medical Officers will desire to have Nurses there, and that it may be useful to place there elderly, still efficient Nurses; but let this come or not as it will, and let us keep quite clear of them, at all events, till the Nursing-service be tried and established in Army Hospitals. In these wards, night-duty will probably be quite unnecessary, though in that case either an Orderly or Assistant Ward-Master ought to sleep at hand; and night-duty is a service which must be spared wherever it can be spared, and rendered as efficient as possible wherever it is really wanted.
I have before submitted that in Paris, Vienna and Berlin, the average of severe cases in Army Hospitals, in time of peace, is very considerably lower than in Civil Hospitals.
This quite as much applies to English Army Hospitals. Whether the ordinary wards would require night-duty I do not know. If they often did, I should prefer having a regular night-duty in them. If they seldom required it, I would not have it.
21. In Civil Hospitals, served by women, I should undoubtedly prefer assigning the night-duty to one Assistant Nurse.
22. But Orderlies are in sundry respects different, and, upon the whole, I recommend not to have night Orderlies, but to let each Orderly in turn do the night-duty.
23. It is important to remember—the more so as it is often forgotten—that to lay more upon human nature than its Maker has made it to bear, is to do a foolish, let alone a wicked thing. Upon an average, all men and women can dispense with, or abridge sleep for more or less time. Upon an average, all men and women, after a laborious day, require a good night, in the long run. When they do not have it, either health, efficiency, or sobriety, or all go.
Believe, again, that this is not theory, but the result of practical observation, much extended.
A strong soldier is no exception to the general rule. In the long run, if made to do night-duty after a laborious day, he will either go to sleep, or drink to keep awake, or he will get knocked up before his time. And this it is part of his business to be in time of war; therefore, in peace-service, it is economical to let him last his time. It is then sound economy to give watchers sufficient sleep.