These probationers will be required to pay towards the cost of maintenance during their year of training the sum of £30, and to give an undertaking to continue in the work for three years after leaving the school; but, upon payment of a higher sum of £52, to cover the cost of maintenance and also partly of instruction, &c., the undertaking will be limited to one year after leaving the school.
Occasional vacancies occur for the admission of gentlewomen free of expense, together with, in some cases, a small salary during the year of training. These advantages will be strictly limited to those whose circumstances require such aid.
Candidates desirous of receiving this course of training should apply to Mrs. Wardroper, the Matron, at St. Thomas's Hospital, subject to whose selection they will be received into the hospital as probationers. The age considered desirable for these probationers is from twenty-seven to thirty-seven, single or widows; a certificate of age and other information will be required. Should opportunities occur for affording instruction in some of the duties of supervision, they will be expected to remain for that purpose for a further period of two or three months, but in that case no further payment will be required. Payment will be required by two equal instalments in advance, viz., half on admittance, and half at the end of six months. No part of the paid instalment will be returned in the event of the probationer leaving from any cause.
The probationers will receive instruction from the medical instructor and the hospital "sisters," and will serve as assistant nurses in the wards of the hospital.
The names of the probationers will be entered in a register, in which a record will be kept of their qualifications. At the end of a year those whom the Committee find to have passed satisfactorily through the course of instruction and training will be entered in the register as certified nurses.
On completion of their training they must be prepared to take employment on the nursing staff of some public hospital or infirmary wherever offered to them by the Committee, and to continue in similar employment for a period of three years at least, this period being limited to one year in the case only of those who have paid at the higher rate. As a step to superior situations, they will be expected, if required, to accept an engagement as nurse (day or night), at the usual salary, for the whole or a portion of the first year after leaving the training school. Engagements, whether as nurse or in a superior situation, will from time to time, during the above period, be made through the Committee with the managers of the institution, by whom the certified probationer is to be employed. Her salary will be paid to her by such managers, but it is expected that she will not terminate any engagement without due notice to the Committee.
Withdrawal from the service may be allowed upon special grounds—family circumstances or otherwise—to be approved by the Committee.
Probationers will not be expected to go out of Great Britain unless at their own request.
The Committee desire, in every case where a staff of nurses is engaged from the "Nightingale Fund," to place at the head of them a superintendent, who has been also trained in the same school. Applications have been numerous for trained nurses to fill superior situations, such as matron, superintendent, assistants to those officers, and ward sister or chief nurse, while there has hitherto been a want of qualified candidates. The Committee therefore anticipate no difficulty in being able to offer suitable appointments to their certified probationers. They will, in recommending for employment, consult the inclination of every probationer—so far as a due regard to the special circumstances of each case enable them to do.
Every probationer will be required, at the end of one month from the date of entry into the hospital, to sign a written engagement, agreeing to abide by these regulations.