National Nurse’s Week was May 6 through May 12. It honors nurses in general and Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, in particular. Nightingale had been born on May 12, 1820, and she emerged as one of the heroes of the Crimean War (1853 – 1856), during which she managed and trained a team of nurses. In 1860, she established a nursing school at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world, and it still exists as part of King’s College London.
While their jobs can seem less glamorous than that of a fireman, nurses are no less heroic. They have to work long hours tending many patients. They assist doctors and therefore have to undergo medical training.
Nurses have always had a lot of demands placed on them, as the following list of rules from 1887 shows. Some of the rules described duties the nurses had in addition to caring for 50 patients.
1) Daily sweep and mop the floors of your ward, dust the patient’s furniture and windowsills.
By 1887, people understood the necessity of keeping patients and their surroundings clean. Hospitals, however, did not have janitors, so the nurses had to do the cleaning.
2) Maintain an even temperature in your ward by bringing in a scuttle of coal for the day’s business.
Radiators, a key component of central heating, weren’t invented until 1857 by a Russian named Franz San Galli. The hospital apparently hadn’t gotten them yet and still relied on coal for heating.
3) Light is important to observe the patient’s condition. Therefore, each day fill kerosene lamps, clean chimneys and trim wicks.
In the United States, electric lighting did not become commonplace in people’s homes until the 1930s – and that applied only if they lived in cities. People who lived in the country had to wait a few more decades to get electric lights.
4) The nurse’s notes are important in aiding your physician’s work. Make your pens carefully; you may whittle nibs to your individual taste.
Fountains pens and very early ball point pens were both developed during the late 19th century. While pens with steel nibs (the part the deposits the ink on the paper) did exist, the nurses apparently still used quill pens like the characters in “Harry Potter.”
5) Each nurse on day duty will report every day at 7 a.m. and leave at 8 p.m., except on the Sabbath, on which day she will be off from noon to 2 p.m.
Aside from the reference to time off for going to church, this rule has not changed much. Modern nurses typically work 12 hours a day.
6) Graduate nurses in good standing with the director of nurses will be given an evening off each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if you regularly go to church.
Women were not expected to make a career of nursing or anything else. They were expected to be nurses for a few years, get married and then quit to take care of their family. The hospital thus gave nurses time to find husbands.
7) Each nurse should lay aside from each payday a goodly sum of her earnings for her benefits during her declining years, so that she will not become a burden. For example, if you earn $30 a month, you should set aside $15.
There was no such thing as Social Security until the 1930s, and not all nurses found men to support them. They therefore had to look after themselves.
8) Any nurse who smokes, uses liquor in any form, gets her hair done at a beauty shop, or frequents dance halls will give the director of nurses good reason to suspect her worth, intentions, and integrity.
This rule reflects the fact that it was the Victorian Age. Nurses who violated it were doubtless fired.
9) The nurse who performs her labors and serves her patients and doctors faithfully and without fault for a period of five years will be given an increase by the hospital administration of five cents per day.
That means a nurse could get a raise of roughly $1.50 per month. As of 2014, modern nurses make, on average, over $66,000 with some earning $98,000.