The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-30 00:00:00

The Nightingale Fund.

The report of the council for the year ending
; June, 1865, has been published :—At the date of the
L last report there were nine probationers still under
training at St. Thomas's Hospital ; in the course of
the year 23 new probationers were entered. Out
of these eleven completed their course satisfactorily,
at or before the end of the year, one was disquali-
fied and left, five were dismissed, and one died in
the hospital, thus leaving 14 under training on the
24th June last. In the month of May last, a staff of
12 nurses, under the charge of Miss Agnes Jones, as
head, all being former probationers, entered into
service in the Liverpool workhouse infirmary, in order
to commence a new system of nursing initiated by
the guardians, by which, if successful, the work-
house infirmary, containing 600 beds, is to be placed
under trained in lieu of pauper nurses, and the
accounts since received express great satisfaction
with the result thus far. This is the second party
of nurses who have gone to Liverpool ; the first
party having been engaged as training nurses
to the Liverpool Training School, in connection
with the Royal Infirmary. Another point to be
remarked upon with satisfaction is the number of
former probationers now holding appointments—
viz., two as lady superintendents, at a salary of £lOO
and £7O respectively ; four as matrons of small
hospitals, at £7O, £5O, £45, and £4O respectively ;
one as superintendent, at £44, and one as sister, at
£5O. The salaries of the nurses range from £2O to
£3O, lodging, full board, and washing being in all
cases provided. In the course of the past year
numerous applications have been received for assist-
ance in establishing nurses' training institutions and
homes, and the committee trust that a few words on
this subject explanatory of the results which have
been derived from experience may not be out of
place. The demand for trained nurses has nesessa-
rily created also a demand for educated and properly
trained superintendents. This would sgeßs
of education who are vainly seeking it in other less
congenial quarters. They must not, however, ex-
pect to fulfil the required duties satisfactorily unless
qualified by having passed through the same course
of training as the nurses whom they are to super-
vise. The committee hope soon to be able, by pro-
viding further accommodation, to increase the num-
ber of probationers to be trained as hospital nurses
at St. Thomas's, and in that case they will be pre-
pared to receive a certain number on payment of a
part of the expenses incurred. Some misconception
exists as to the object and plan of the scheme which
is in operation at King's College Hospital, under
the direction of the Council of St. John's House.
The object, as stated in the regulations, is to train
midwives, or midwifery nurses, to be employed ex-
clusively among the poor, under the direction of the
medical men. The women who are to be trained
must be selected and engaged (subject to the ap-
proval of the Lady Superior of St. John's House)
by those persons who intend to employ them. The
committee do not undertake to train nurses with-
out a definite engagement. While the applications
for district or village nurses, ready trained, are
numerous, but comparatively few of the appli-
cants are prepared to comply with the regulations
either from inability to find a suitable woman to
be trained, or else from disinclination to fulfil
the conditions with regard to the payment
and employment of the nurse after she shall have
been trained. Many persons also desire to have a
sick nurse in preference to a "midwifery " nurse.
Experience has proved the correctness of the view
taken by Miss Nightingale, that, with the limited
means at command, a greater benefit would be con-
ferred on the poor by affording a special training in
the duties of a midwifery nurse than by a more
general instruction. It is not, however, desired to
restrict the nurse to midwifery, whenever, without
interfering with a due attention to such cases, she
may be usefully and prudently employed in cases of
ordinary sickness. Attendance on fever and other
infectious cases is obviously inadmissible. Acci-
dents, on the other hand, may usually be safely
nursed. Many of the probationers have, with this
view, passed several months in the accident and
general wards after the completion of the assigned
period of six months in the Maternity Ward. The
committee hare, from the first, required an under-
taking both from the nurse and those who send her
to be trained that she shall be employed for a cer-
tain number of years solely among the poor. This
has been found to be quite essential, having regard
to the very expensive and valuable education the
nurse has received, and to the great temptation to
which she is frequently subjected to transfer her
services to the rich. To give practical effect to this
undertaking a guarantee is required from the em-
ployers that a nurse shall receive, either directly or
by supplementing her earnings, a competent salary,
or its equivalent. The amount must vary with cir-
cumstances. What is usually required for an expe-
rienced woman is a sum sufficient to provide com-
fortable board and lodging, and £2O a year. The
salary might in some cases commence lower and rise
by degrees. Fourteen nurses are now in active
work and giving very great satisfaction. In con-
clusion, the committee trust to be in a position to
state in the next report that arrangements havebeen
completed with the governors of St. Thomas's Hos-
pital, under which the Training School for Hospital
Nurses will be continued on an extended scale at
the magnificent hospital about to be erected in Lam-
I beth, opposite the Houses of Parliament.

LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.—Last even-
ing Mrs. Holcroft gave an entertainment, compris-
ing Shaksperian pictures, musical selections, and an
entertainment written by herself, entitled "A Dress Re-
hearsal," which included selections from her comedietta,
"My Husband's Secret," and a dramatic sketch, " Lass
versus Lawyer." The ladies and gentlemen in course of
these several performances acquitted themselves very
earnestly.and creditably. Mr. A. Young, the professional
Shaksporian reader, however, was the popular favourite.
His delineation of "rage," as Shylock, in the "Merchant of
Venice," and of "humour" as the Gravedigger, in "Ham-
let," were marked bygreat diversity of elocutionary ability
s
pathos, declamation, and rapartee having elicited the appro-
bation of the audience. Miss Marlborough in " llermiono's
Defence," Miss Austin, in " Ophelia's Madness," and
Mr
Russ,and ienl e
N`
eCrl are
performance,nce's Dream,"
and were
the i markedti tuti byorcfeaßrnir. earnest
beck was very creditably vindicated.
study