Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-07-24
THE HOSPITAL GIRL.
AN INTERESTING INSIGHT INTO HER
RESPONSIBLE DUTIES.

Patients-The Clang Of tho Ambulance
Gong.
At the end of three months the novice Is
put Cd night duty in either the medical or
surgical ward and then it is that all the
heroism and courage of her nature is called
into action. One nurse is put in charge OK
two wards, each containing, when full,
twenty patients The lights arc turned down
until dusky silence hovers over the white
cots In tho surgical ward the doctor leaves
his orders, often supplemented by the lnfor-
nation that patient in one ward has just
passed through a severe operation, there is
danger OF hemorrhage, and the nurse must
not leave her alone. Perhaps in the other
ward patient is very low. The doctor says
she must be watched constantly, for she is
liable to die at any moment. Then he goes
away, and the young girl fits about in the
gloom from cot TO cot administering medi-
cines and treatment, burryins from the side
OF one sufferer to the other, half fearful to
gaze into tho quiet face lest it be already
Still in death; afraid the dangerously i'll pa
tient In one ward will die while she goes to
see the dying sufferer in the other.
Suddenly the dread clang that all nurses
fear with a nameless horror strikes upon her
ear through the dreadful stiffness. 1t draws
nearer and nearer, and stops at the doorway.
Every nurse knows the portcnt of the ambu-
lance bell Every nurse fears the arrival Of
some new patient if thsre is an empty cot in
her ward Then comes the sound of slow,
measured footsteps drawing nearer and
nearer, and she fiios to make ready tho empty
cot, only hoping no one will die while she is
witt
come in with the stretchcr and deposit its
burden on the bed The nurse washes the
blood from the wounds, if there be any;
determines the extent Of the injury as
much as possible, and, IL very serious,
calls the doctor If only cut needing few
stitches and careful bandaging, the nurse per-
forms the operation herself; battles her pa
tent and makes her comfortable, and then
hurries back, perhaps to witness for the first
time the last struggle of a dying person
When the last shuddering sigh falls from
the stifening lips, the brave girl alone In the
gloomy ward closes the eyes, folds tho Efe-
less hands, and taking down the card bear
ing the name of the dead from over the bed,
hurries down through the long dim corridors
to tell the orderly to prepare for the burial.
If the patient be heavy, the nurse calls the
Is kept to do the cleaning in zach ward, and
together they do up the CORPSE" as it is
called in the hospital. If, on tho other hand,
the dead woman is slender, the nurse bathes
and shrouds her alone. all of which must be
accomplished within an hour after her death.
Then the men enter with the box and she is
borne out, the nurse throws the bedding out
on the fire escape and returns to her duties.
fv--f 81
this kind alone in tho dim wards of the hos
pital late at night, for deaths are likely to
occur between the hours of IL and 8 q. m,
when vitality is at a low ebb.
A person who has watched at night by the
bedside Of one who is very Ill can have
faint notion OF the responsibility of a person
in charge of forty patients in various degrees
OF danger. A young woman who had known
nothing Of sickness ard little of work re-
lates one nights experience when an elderly
woman was apparently dying in great dis
tress and required constant attention In
tho cot adjoining lay another patient, who,
though not in imminent danger, was suffer-
ing terribly, and who had, rs the nurse ex-
pressed It, more things the matter with her
than any one ever had before OF since" The
nurse had pulled the screens up around tho
diving womaus bed and was administering
such alternating remedies as lay in her power,
when she suddenly heard great disturbance
In the adjoining ward, and fastening there
found an immense fat woman, crazy with
fever, promenading up and down the ward,
making havoc with everything movablO.
Coaxing, commanding and assisting her, she
was fually settled in bed again, but as the
nurse bent over her dying patientthe same
commotion was heard in the other ward
again, and she went back, and after cca1ing
the woman into her cot, she tied her feet to
the iron bars at the foot Of the bed. Once
more she hurried TO the other ward only to
find one patient writhing ia pain, the other
with clenched hands tossing in the death
struggle. As the quivering features Gained
10 peacefulness and the grosns were hushed
to silence, she heard the noise Of groans and
screams in the other ward, and found the
fat woman on the floor, with her feet still
tied to the bed. BY the help Of all the force
In the ward she was lifted DO her place,
strapped down to the bed, and in the gray
light of the dawn tho dead woman was pre-
pared for her burial, while the living moaned
In pain
In another cot perfect specimen Of wo-
manhood lay dying. The doctors, with mis-
directed zeal, had prolonged her agony by
the operation of tracbeoeomy, and She lay
struggling with death in G 4 tine freshness and
strength OF her early womarhood There
had been another FIRE horror, and to save her
children she had das6ed backed into the
burning building, inhalins heat and spoke
that had injured her internally past all re-
covery. The round curving limbs were like
scufpturcd marble, majestic In their white
beauty; the sweet, fair iaco was unscorched
by the flames and ulfaded by disease; tie
white stetuesQue arms were tossed above her
head in agony. Just as sho gave her last
rpasunodsc SHY er tie little babe she had saved
no heroicsily mosned out, "Ma-.n.-na-I,la,o
the first time Il had spoken since it was
brought there, and with smile the mother
reached out her hands toward the voice, and
WAS dead. The nurses wept softly Is they
hathed the beautiful form. though they are
g, accustomed to death 1t has little terror or
Borrow for them.
One nurss who has been practicing her pro-
session for some timc says she doesn't believe
sven now that she could so back to the hos
pital and live through those night watches
again, though she loves her work and feels
all its responsibility and saeredness- Many
of the nurses, however, love their hospital
work with a strange fascination, and either
accept situations in other hospitals when they
graduate or obtain some salaried place In their
Ryn The orderly systematic rovtaae. tas