CHAPTER XXXI
New Hospital buildings completed—Description of buildings and interior arrangements—Children’s Department established—First general Training School for Nurses in America definitely organized under the direction of Dr. Susan Dimock; one of the graduates of its first class (Miss Linda A. Richards) later helping to organize the training schools of the Bellevue Hospital of New York, the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston City Hospital—New England Hospital medical women invited to attend some of the Clinics at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary—Though delayed by the epizoötic epidemic and the great Boston Fire, the new Hospital buildings are finally formally dedicated—First Hospital Social Service in America organized in connection with the Maternity. (1871-1872.)
Architects, contractors, builders and workmen, all took a personal interest in the plans of the new Hospital buildings, and all made larger or smaller contributions to the enterprise. With such a spirit the structure grew apace, and even early in the spring of 1872 a few patients were moved in—some who especially needed the advantages of the good air, sunlight and almost country quiet. But all the patients were transferred before the end of September.
First Buildings of the New England Hospital for Women and Children, Erected 1872.
The main building was later named in honor of Dr. Marie E. Zakrzewska.
Dr. Zakrzewska writes:
At last we were able definitely to inaugurate the work for which we had been preparing during the previous ten years, namely, to dedicate our own building to our threefold object—a clinical school for women physicians and students; a training school for nurses; and a charity, especially for lying-in patients.
For this latter purpose a cottage, the “Maternity,” was expressly built, while the medical and surgical patients occupied the main building. Some rooms were reserved for private patients, who paid fully for all they received. This latter department is very desirable in all hospitals, not only for the accommodation of travelers who may be taken ill while sojourning in a strange city, but also for those who when boarding cannot have the comforts of a home; while it likewise gives to our nurses a fair chance to be trained in attendance upon the sick of all classes and conditions of life.
Thus we had arrived nearly at the point at which we aimed, only that the means needed to carry on the work were not yet secured. We had no endowed wards and we had only a few endowed beds in the Maternity; therefore, we had no Funds but must depend upon the daily interest of the public to sustain the institution.
We now offered to the public not only the idea of reform, as we comprehended it, but also the visible embodiment of it in brick and mortar. Our vision had become materialized, and the work done within its walls spread the tidings of its success among the suffering and the needy.
The Drs. Blackwell, Ann Preston and myself stood no longer alone as the bearers of an idea—hundreds of young women had joined us. The path had been broken, and the profession had been obliged to yield, and to acknowledge the capacity of women as physicians. The argument that we few were exceptions to our sex has ceased; medical societies in different parts of the country admit women as members; hospitals begin to open their doors to women; men physicians endeavor to be polite towards their women colleagues; and their women colleagues certainly stand on a level with the men as regards good education.
And last but not least, society admits that it is highly respectable for a woman to become legally a physician, and offices and houses are now rented to medical women without fear of injury to the reputation of the neighborhood.
Thus, the world does move! But I am sorry to be forced to say that it is not the Republic of America which has given the proof that “science has no sex,” only in so far as that it has furnished the largest number of women students. But it is the Republic of Switzerland which has verified this maxim. Our best women physicians have been educated there as well as in Germany and in France—for even these two latter countries have received women into their schools more on an equality with men than has America. And not less than six of our pupils from Boston are at present receiving the benefits which the opportunities for medical study and research offer in Vienna.
The United States still hesitate to allow to their women that education which they offer to their men. The result will be that talented women will go abroad and seek for the better medical education which Europe offers them and, returning with a higher standard of scientific learning, the men here will not only be obliged to acknowledge such women as their equals but they will be compelled to raise their own professional standards.
So far as my knowledge extends, this will be the first instance in history where through injustice to women, men themselves will be benefited.
The plan was to have one large brick building which should contain all the administrative offices of the Hospital as well as a small number of medical and surgical wards, the intention being to add later a wing entirely devoted to wards. But the Lying-in Department was to be housed in an entirely separate structure.[17]
Quite as essential and desired a policy of expansion, but one which had waited on the new building, was that of the training of nurses.
We have seen the importance which Dr. Zakrzewska attached to this question ever since her first hospital control, back in the days when she organized the practical details of the New York Infirmary. And we have noticed the recurring references to the difficulties which delayed the full development of her plans. But she continued to exercise her choice of individuals as best she might, and she endeavored to give the most thorough training for as long periods as she could make practicable.