Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1888-09-12
THE HOSPITAL GIRL.
An Interesting Insight into Her Re-
sponsible Duties

At the end OF three months the novice
Is put on night duty in either the medi-
cal 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 of two wards, each
containing, when full, twenty patients.
The lights are turned down until
dusky silence hovers over the white
cots. In the surgical ward the doctor
leaves his orders, often supplemented
by the information 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 a 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 medicines and
treatment, hurrying from the side of
one sufferer to the other, half fearful
to gaze into the quiet face lest it be
already still in death; afraid the dam
gerousIy Ill patient IN one ward will
die while she goes to sea the dying suf-
ferer in the other.
Suddenly the dread clang that all
nurses fear with nameless horror
strikes upon her ear through the dread
ful stiffness. 1t draws nearer and
nearer, and stops at the doorway
Every nurse knows the portent of the
ambulance bell. Every nurse fears the
arrival of some new patient if there is
an empty Cot in her ward. Then comes
the sound Of slow, measured footsteps
drawing nearer and nearer. and she
flies to make ready for the empty cot,
only hoping no one will Gle while she
| is engaged with the new conner. The
men come in with the stretcher 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, If very serious, calls the
doctor. Ii only cut needing a few
stitches and careful bandaging, the
nurse performs the operation herself;
bathes her patient and makes her COM
Portable, and then hurries back, per-
| haps to witness for the first time tie
last struggle of a dying person.
When the last shuddering sigh falls
from the stIffening lips, the brave girl
alone IN the gloomy ward closes the
| eyes, folds the lifeless hands, and taking
down the card bearing the name of the
dead from over the bed, hurries down
! through the dim long corridors to tell
the orderly to prepare for the burial.
IL the patient be heavy, the nurse calls
| the helper, woman from prison, one
of which is kept to do the cleaning in
each ward, and together they ''do up
the CORPSE" as it Is called in the hos
pital. If, on the 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
iire escape and returns TO her duties.
Many a girl has met her first experience
OF this kind alone IN the dim wards of
the hospital late at night, for deaths
are likely to occur between the hours
of II and 8 A. NJ, when vitality is at a
low ebb.
A person who has watched at night
by the bedside of one who is very i'll
can have faint notion of the response
bility OF a person in charge of forty
patients in various degrees of danger.
a young woman who had known moth
ing of sickness and little of work re-
lates one nights experience when an
elderly woman was apparently dying
In great distress and required constant
another patient, who, though not In
imminent danger, was suffering terri
bly,, and who had, as the nurse ex-
pressed it, ''more things the matter
with her than any one ever had before
CT since" The nurse had pulled the
screens up around the dying woman'S
bed and was administering such allie
waiting remedies as lay il her power,
when she suddenly heard a great dis
turbance in the adjoining ward, and
fastening there found an i'm menSe fat
woman, crazy with fever, promenading
up ond down the ward, making havoc
with everything movable. Coaxing,
commanding and assisting her. she was
finally settled IN bed again, but as the
nurse bent over her dying patient the
same commotion was heard In the
other ward again, and she went back,
and after coaXing 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 in pain, the other
with cIenched hands tossing in the
death struggle. As the qulvering feat
ures Gained to peacefulness and the
groaus were hushe1 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 to her
place. strapped down to the bed, and
in the gray light of the dawn the dead
woman was prepared for her burial,
while the living mOaned in pain.
In another cot perfect specimen of
womanhood lay dying. The doctors,
with misdirected zeal, had prolonged
her agony by the operation Of trache-
otomy, and she lay struggling with
death in all the freshness and strength
of her early womanhood. There had
) been another ire horror, and to save
, her children she had dashed back into
the burning building, inhaling heat and
smoke that had injured her internally
past all recovery. The round curviRg
limbs were like sculptured marble,
majestic In their white beauty; the
sweet, fair face was unscorched by the
: flames and unfaded by disease, the
white statuesque arms were tossed
above her head in agony. Just as she
gave her last spasmodic shiver the little
babe she had saved 50 heroically
moaned out, MA ma ma ma" the
:. first time it had spoken since 1t was
! brought there, and with a smile the
. mother reached out her hands toward
the voice, and was dead The nurses
/ wept softly as they bathed the beautiful
3 form, though they are so accustomed
= to death il has little terror or SORROW
E for them.
{ One nurse who has been practicing
' her profession for some time says she
r doesn't believe even now that she could
q go back to the hospital and 1--we through
p those night watches again, though she
4 loves her work and feels all its respon-
slbIlity and sacredness. Many of the
nurses, however, love their hospital
d work with a strange fascination, and
b either accept situations in other hos
s pltals when they graduate or Obtain
[ some salarled place in their own The
a orderly, systematic routine, the precise
n automatic regularity of the hospita
o service, the constant attendance OF th'
physicians, the convenience Of arrange