Where are the Night Orderlies to Sleep by Day?
27. If the Ward Orderlies watch by turns, it should be arranged that the men who sleep before and after the watch can do so quietly. This is by no means always attended to, as to Nurses in Civil Hospitals. Upon the whole, I cannot think it would answer to have always the same watchers, as regards Orderlies. The other Orderlies, supposing them lodged apart from the wards, will certainly go seldom enough to their quarters during day, except during their exercise time. It may be thought essential to retain soldiers under very primitive notions as to quarters. So though in a dormitory of women, I think little cells, parted either with a partition or a curtain, the whole thoroughly airy, are in all respects preferable to unparted rooms, it may be, by some, thought better that the Orderlies shall sleep in large airy wards, not parted by curtains or partitions. I know, however, one high Military authority, at least; who considers the same reasons apply to men as to women in this. Soldiers are generally able to go to sleep whenever ordered. Indeed their general capacity of doing whatever they are bid is one of their many fine points. The Orderlies’ wards must be under some sort of inspection, and noise must not be suffered in them. Non-Commissioned Officers, either Ward or Assistant Ward-Masters, or some special functionary (but such I would not multiply) must sleep near, and have general charge of the order and quiet of such wards. I conclude that one or more Assistant Ward-Masters, at all events, must watch, and as they must sleep by day, this will fit in well enough.
I should avoid putting the Orderlies in a too much out of the way part of the Hospital; they should know themselves liable to inspecting visits any time. I am not sure that Ward or Assistant Ward-Masters would not be much better guardians of the Orderlies’ wards than any special functionary. Drink is the vice of these men, noble fellows as, as a body, they are, and I should avoid quartering any man too comfortably and solely in one particular post. Cases have been where the duenna of the Nurses’ dormitory was herself a determined, disguised drunkard, and reported others accordingly as she was bribed or not with drink for herself.
The whole question of Orderlies sleeping near or away from their wards should be well considered by the proper authority, two or three experienced Army-Surgeons. Upon the whole, I think it would be well to try the quartering them separately: there is much to be said on both sides as usual.
Comparative Merits of Different Systems of Night Nursing.
28. In several foreign Hospitals a certain number of Night Watchers, both Sisters, and Men-Nurses, are told off for night-duty for four weeks, during which they are exempted from all labour by day, and receive better food than the usual diet. They also receive good night-refreshment.
In one Hospital the following is the arrangement. The wards usually contain from 10 to 13 beds, and there are many small wards for three, two, or one, bad cases or operation cases. All the wards open upon a corridor. The Sisters do not watch in the men’s wards.
| A Sister watches in the female medical wards | 5 Watchers | |
| A Sister watches in the female surgical wards | ||
| A Sister watches in the children’s wards and girls’ ward | ||
| A Man-Nurse watches in the male medical wards | ||
| A Man-Nurse watches in the male surgical wards and boys’ ward |
An operation-case, or an extra bad or anxious case, or a case requiring special attendance and put in a single ward, has an Extra-Watcher. Often there are no Extra-Watchers: sometimes there are several at once. The Extra-Watcher is either a Sister or a Man-Nurse, taken from among the other Sisters or Men-Nurses, who, after his or her day’s duty, does the extra watch.
As regards all English hospitals, civil or military, the advantages of this system are these:—