Norwich bulletin., 1921-12-15
BACKUS HOSPITAL NEEDS ARE TOLD
 ID MEETING OF NORWICH ROTARIANS

can be readily seen that their wages are
 not much and if they have to buy pair 1 of shoes 1t eats quite some hoe in the earnings. These 28 nurses are housed in one old fashioned building, entirely made ouate, as at times two or three have to occupy the same room. The dining hall Is | small and the lecture room is even | smaller. Good living quarters are essen= | tial to good nurses They should be properly housed and should have suitable
 entertainment when off duty for they
 work 12 hours a day. It Is hard to get girls to take up nursing owing sirnply
 the fact that the quarters are so crampe1 1 The nursing profession is one of the least l appreciated of any. The nurse works on
 an average of 20 hours cay at $35 per | week or about 20 cents an hour. Still | you find those who conplain as dld
 man in one case here in the city. A mans wife was critically III and he told
 me to get a trained nurse and good | one I did, and within one week his wife
 passed the danger point and was we'll oh the road to recovery. Was the nurses services appreciated? They we've not One night I received telephone call from
 the man asking me why had sent him 1 robber He said the nurse had the nerve to ask S35 per week for her services ] asked him how much he was getting and he told me s1 per hour and if he worked over eight hours he got $1.50 per hour.
 Even then he begrudged the nurse. why had worked 20 hours per day, the 70
 cents per hour that she had received If we could get good substantial sum We could get a good home and turn out more good nurses Norwich needs more nurses as everyone knows who has oc- ca sion to need one About 50 per cent.
 of the nurses graduated from the W. W Pacl1us training school go to other towns Norwich should have more nurses.
 The laboratory at the hospital Is very good but it was only recently that we had this A donation of S32,000 fir such place was made but We have fitted up room in the basement which does very well, but some time we will use th' money for regular building. The x ray Is another important feature as was the ambulance that was given the neop'" of Norwich through the Rotary club There Is another thing that we need very much and that Is an improve method of administering anesthetics Eth 1 CT Is more or less dangerous. depending much on the condition of the patient. A ga s-oygen machine Is one way of admin 1 istering anesthetics which has been found
 to be of great benefit in ether hospitals 1 and should be installed in the local tnsti- l tution4 But for all these things we must
 have money.
 i The hospital is like Rotary club its motto is Service" hut 10 keep th;s se~- vfca continuous We must have money, for
 with a deficit facing the hospital each year the outcome is obvious
 i Casper K. Bailey, first selectman, stat ed after Dr. Agnews talk that to hs l knowledge no person has been turned down by the town If the request fer aid came through the proper channels.
 Nathan A. Gibbs paid warm tribute 10 the nurses of the Packus hospital speaking from his experiences with tho untiring and unseln$h service rendered by one of the nurses from that institu- ton.
 At the business session of the club i was voted to contribute s1O to the tuber i culosis seal cam9aian. $10 to the C3rs
 mas fund of the sanatorium and S10 the Backus hospital nurses holiday fund President Briggs appointed John A
 Ferguson, II. M. T,erou. and Alfreti c
 Bliven as a committee on business ethics F. Russell Smith chairman of the en l tertainment committee, stated that tn,
 first three meeting in January woul, be conducted by John A. Ferguson, Jame
 !. Madden and Nathan A. Gfbhs. G org,
 Ingalls, was appointed song leader fo
 January.
 The meeting closed in the usual form.