THE TREATMENT OF NURSES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR." I SIE.—We have just read the notice in your issue of April 13th on the book entitled "A Nurse's Life in Peace and War." Miss Laurence describes hospital life, laying especial stress on the fact that the nurses were " cruelly underfed." We have just completed our training in one of the four largest London hospitals, and note your comment to the effect that these conditions existed twenty years ago. From our experi- ence matters cannot have changed much in the interval. It is a curious fact that the arrangements for housing nurses are so much in advance of those for feeding them. In an age when so much thought and money are expended on improving existing evils, surely something should be done to improve matters in this respect. Nursing has been recognized as woman's noblest profession, and the standard required daily grows higher. Looked at from the lowest standard, would it not pay the hospital authorities to supply better food for their nurses, and thereby prevent the constant breakdowns from lack of adequate nourishment P The food provided is, in our experience, of an inferior quality, badly cooked, badly served, and often of more than questionable cleanliness. Should not something be done to alter this P—We are, Sir, &c., Two NURSES.
Previous page
