456 



NURSES, TRAINED. 



up the system of rigorous cleanliness known to 

 those of America and England. In Paris and 

 other French cities, too, many institutions have 

 in late years been established which are in no 

 wise religious, and where trained nurses can be 

 obtained by private patients. There are also two 

 noted societies for supplying nurses and delicacies 

 to woundel soldiers in time of war; these are 

 Les Dames de France, of which the widow of the 

 late Marshal MacMahon is president, and Les 

 KCM lines de France, ' whose president is Madame 

 Koechlin Schwartz. There are also Red Cross 

 nurses. 



Spain is still in the hands of nuns and Sisters 

 of Charity nurses, who since the suppression of 

 their orders (1835), and confiscations of their 

 property later by Isabella II, are too crippled in 

 resources to take any initiative themselves, and 

 the Government does nothing. Only those who 

 can pay for it receive good nursing. It has been 

 said that no reforms in the interest of the sick 

 poor have taken place in Spain since St. Theresa 

 worked wonders there in the middle of the six- 

 teenth century. Interested persons some years 

 ago settled an English nurse in a cottage hospital 

 at Cadiz for the use of English people and others 

 taken sick there. It still flourishes. Portugal is 

 no better off, and for a similar cause, and in either 

 country kindness is said to be more common than 

 trained nursing. The nuns and monks do what 

 they can, but are reduced to want themselves. 



Down almost into modern days Germany held 

 to the traditions of nursing founded by the great 

 orders of chivalry, by the Knights of St. John and 

 of Malta, and Sisters of Charity as hospital 

 nurses became the rule there as in France. The 

 Lutheran parson Fliedner, at Kaiserswerth, al- 

 ready mentioned, made the first break, and he, in 

 choosing a name for his modern nurses, went back 

 to that used by Christians before convents were 

 founded he called them deaconesses. Their fame 

 spread; they were called to hospitals in Berlin, 

 Frankfort, Kreuznach, London, France, even to 

 Constantinople, India, and Japan. Up to 1883 it 

 was estimated that 627 nurses had been trained at 

 Kaiserswerth, and they were placed at about 

 200 stations. Since training has multiplied at all 

 home stations, the draw from Kaiserswerth is 

 less. Indeed, since the fame of his pupil, Miss 

 Nightingale, filled the world that of Pastor Flied- 

 ner has been rather obscured. 



Empress Friedrich, daughter of Queen Victoria, 

 founded a noted training place, the Victoria 

 Home and Fatherland Ladies' Society, at Magde- 

 burg. Empress Augusta founded another at 

 Sclh'mebeck. Others sprang up at Dresden, Leipsic, 

 Breslau, Carlsruhe, and elsewhere in the kingdom. 

 The Red Cross has there, as elsewhere, done an im- 

 mense work in training. Besides, many of the 

 long-established brotherhoods and sisterhoods of 

 the Roman Catholic Church began also to train. 

 There an- said to be more than 6,000 nurses in 

 Prussia alone. 



Yet throughout Germany in general, even in 

 Prussia, the Catholic societies, having longest con- 

 cerned themselves with nursing, arc si ill mostly 

 in possession of the field. They are almost wholly 

 so in Austria and outlying German provinces; and 

 as Government does little or nothing to perfect 

 the system, old methods prevail. Vienna, one of 

 the world's foremost cities in surgery, is accounted 

 one of the most backward in nursing. The Ru- 

 dolphnerhaus is reputed one of its best served hos- 

 pitals, having 18 or 20 Red Cross sisters, assisted 

 l>y ( probationers. Red Cross sisters in these 

 countries are drawn from all ranks in life, hut an 

 effort is made to secure the most intelligent and 



refined. They pass through the regular probation- 

 ary period and curriculum as other nurses. As a 

 rule, they receive the first year board and lodging, 

 and what would correspond to about $3 or $4 a 

 month ; the second year about $10 ; and the fourth 

 year about $14. Pay for nurses on the Continent 

 varies too much to be specified accurately, but 

 everywhere it is small compared with what they 

 receive in England and the United States. A 

 strong reason, no doubt, for holding to the old 

 order of nursing is that men or women of religious 

 orders, being supported by their orders, work 

 gratis and from a sense of duty only. 



The Rudolph Stiftung, in Vienna, was found, 

 when examined a short time ago, to have 70 Sis- 

 ters of the Sacred Heart in charge of the wards. 

 answerable less to the doctors than to the head 

 of their order. The Allgemeines Krankenhaus, 

 with 2,000 beds, had only 250 nurses, without a 

 matron or any system of training; they were not 

 sisters of any sort, but women rather of the " Sairy 

 Gamp " order, in common stuff gowns and blouses, 

 with no caps or aprons. 



The hospitals at Buda-Pesth are served by 

 Brothers of Mercy, who also carry on a varied 

 and complex system of district nursing without 

 regard to creed. They are said to have had no 

 scientific training, but plenty of experience, and to 

 be devoted and reliable. These examples may 

 serve to indicate the nursing system throughout 

 Austria and adjacent German provinces. 



Belgium is also in the hands of the religious 

 nursing orders, but better managed. There is 

 more training, and the modern system is growing. 



Holland, which never had much to do with re- 

 ligious orders, has not, up to a recent period, had 

 any established system of nursing its sick, and 

 seemed somewhat indifferent to adopting any. 

 The enterprise was first attempted about thirty- 

 five years ago by three ladies, one of whom gave 

 a house of hers at The Hague to the experi- 

 ment. The venture met with unexpected success . 

 the demand for private nurses soon overran the 

 supply, and larger facilities for training were es- 

 tablished. As early as 1888 there were ,'W7 people 

 in the Home of the Deaconesses. Next, the Chil- 

 dren's Hospital, at Rotterdam, established a train- 

 ing school. Although Holland still needs concen- 

 tration of force and purpose in her training, she 

 bids fair to catch up with some of her neigh hois. 



Sweden, Norway, and Denmark all have 

 adopted the modern system of trained nursing. 

 It is not unlike that of England or America, ex- 

 cept that it is on a smaller id more primitive 

 plan, and nominally more to meet the exigencies 

 of war. The best training schools are under tlie 

 auspices of the Red Cross sisterhood. The KOMI- 

 miine Hospital, in Denmark, has a training school 

 of note. The chief nurse plejemodcr has to live- 

 in the hospital and oversee all the sick nursiiijj. 

 The nurses assist the surgeons and prepare all. 

 the work for their hands antiseptic dressing. 

 sublimate, iodoform, gauze, etc. There are two 

 classes of nurses. One is taken only from the 

 upper or educated classes, and called ilnnirr or 

 ladies; the others only attend to patients under 

 direction of these. The former are trained, uoi 

 to serve, but to head institutions. 



For Sweden and Norway the Diakomiss Institute 

 at Stockholm is in high repute as a place of train- 

 ing. At first all the nurses in hospitals IlironglioMl 

 these countries used to be on an equal footing: of 

 late all have head nurses and a superintendent. 

 system was also established at Copenhagen, and 

 followed elsewhere, by which the Red Cross -j- 

 terhood could instruct the people who came to 

 them for useful information in time of sicklies-. 



