The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-03-28
THE CHILDEEN's HOSPITAL.

THE CHILDEEN's HOSPITAL.
The annual report Of the Hospital fer
Children and Training school for Nurses
has come to nand and exhibits a gratifying
picture of steady progress. During the year
1890 465 patients were received and 30 were
treated, as against 30S treated in 1889.
Furty-one free beds for children were filed
during the year. The income of the institu-
ton. mainly derived from donations and
subscriptions, was S38,97S, the expenditures
$50, 221. but to keep the balance on the right
side and to prevent the hospital from run
ming in debt taxed the energies of Mrs.
President Harrington and the generosity of
her friends.
There is no more interesting sight in the
city than the spectacle of the poor little
afflicted waits who find cheerful home and
kindly treatment In this HOSPITAL. There
are children there of all ages and all races
and suffering from every Imaginable disease.
Many of them are in constant pain. Quite
number bear traces Of the humble class to
when their parents belong Manv OF them
never seem to have heard kind word or to
have experienced kind treatment I'LL they
entered the doors of this hospital. Yet
they are all cuntented, and, wnen pain a.
lows. CuttLlul anu lAlGIAg y uC Ltlb hui oAo
fit like mnIstering angels from bed to bed,
with a pleasant word or a gay joke for its
occup Mt The lady physician DR.. Smiley,
is idoiized by her patients. G0od men and
good women IN this generous city see to it
that the little patients are provided with
occasional flowers, toys and delicacies.
More donations OF the kind would be wei
come, but it is pleasant to note that the suf-
L.
Not the least valuable department of the
hospital is the tlaining-school for nurses
which is connected with it. This school is
dong admirable work. Thirty-one nurses
are now on duty at the hospital as under
graduates. Twelve graduated last year
These young ladies' are taught to prepare
food for the sick, to secure if possible
proper ventilation, to observe all the symp-
toms of the patients under their charge and
to note the effect of medicines. At stated
intervals they attend lectures on the treat
ment of disease. Their course Of study
! lasts two years. At its expiration they
graduate as trained nurses, and if they have
turned their opportunities to account and
can make themselves agreeable and useful
they are sure of an ample livelihood. A
perfect nurse commands as high pay as a
cashier in a merchants Office.
1t was the opinion of DR.. Van Buren, of
| New York and of Sir James Paget in
England that the success of the modern
hospital WAS mainly due to the practice of
| employing trained nurses to care for
| patients Before Pastor Fiiedner estab-
! lished his training school for nurses some
sixty years ago, the care of patients de-
| Yolved upon servants. who were generally
| ignorant and often careless. The couse-
| quence was large mortality, which was
| clearly pTeventable II took quarter of a
century for England to adopt the reform,
| and it was at least as long before training
! schools for nurses were established in New
| York, Boston and Philadelphia. But the
success of the plan soon insured its general
acceptance At the present time there are
schools for trained nurses ia every Ameri-
| can city; not the least useful of these is the
| one which is connected with the Children's
| Hospital. One result is that surgical opera
| lions are more rarely fatal than they used
| to be- that disease is more frequently cured
and that life is prolonged.
doctor has been heard to say that as
between the physician and the nurse, the
| former can be better dispensed with than
| the latter. This, perhaps, is going rather
| far. But there are no doubt cases where
cures are affected by the recuperative
energy of the patient, aided by the careful
and Ygilant attendance of the nurse. 1t
must be a source of pride to the ladies who
have built up the training-schcOl at 800
| California street to reflect that they have
planted an institution which not only saves
life, but mitlgates suffering, eutivates a
noble sense OF sympathy in the community
at large, and provides a large class of young
women with calling which is equally
honorable, profitable and useful.