HANDS TO LABOUR
SIR,—" No one cares for the nurse, only for her hands to lahour." This cri de coeur from an experienced sister-tutor seemed to be denied by the next letter opened. It contained the report of -a special committee appointed by a large' hospital to consider the guarding of the health of nurses. An extensive scheme of watchful care was outlined, including the appointment of a senior physician to be responsible for the work. Next day, however, the peadulum swung back again, for from a Northern hospital came a sorry tale from a nurse-patient lying in a tuberculosis ward. Her own troubles had paled, but indignation was aroused for a probationer nurse just admitted trying to adjust herself to a dreary future of inveidism, who told the following 'tale: In her early months at hospital her feet ached persistently, but she was assured "they would get used to it." At last her parents demanded attention, and after "some unpleasantness" and much delay, an X-Ray examination was arranged. Her feet and also lungs were examined. . Both sets of films revealed the presence of established tuberculous disease. Even so, she returned to duty until a sanatorium bed could be made available. In this case it seemed the nurse was of less account than her feet to labour.
In the shadows of our hospitals ghosts are lurking ; they will not be laid till the public demand for reform becomes far more insistent than at present. Thelma's ghost, for instance. At 57 she was eager to become a nurse, but her parents headed her off for over a year. She was happy and interested in her training, but haunted by the thought of examinations. The final one approached ; she had been on duty all night in a particularly heavy ward, and dragged a tired brain and weary body to the examination hall. The questions danced before her ; she "couldn't think." Failure ensued and the old grind began again. A few months later she was reported to matron for "creeping "about, no
energy." Her holiday was ante-dated, but never achieved. In two months she had died of acute tuberculosis.
Her story would seem to justify the sister-tutor's complaint that in our hospitals today the hands to labour are the-things that really matter, though employees are so elegantly referred to as "student nurses." If one awakened hospital can set to work- to produce a more rational regime for nurses, why can there not be a national uprising demanding at least two essentials? These should be (t) an inspectorate to ensure a standard of welfare conditions (as in factories); (2) compensation or pension for those disabled through service (as in the Forces).—Yours, ESTHER CARLING. ..
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