The Hospital Requirements of Sydney. 37 



of, ordinary hospital nurses. An institution for training nurses 

 has been established in connection with the Liverpool Royal 

 Infirmary. 



" 2nd. That nurses should be relieved of all duties but those 

 strictly belonging to their office ; that, for example, it should be 

 no part of their duty to perform the functions of a scrubber, and 

 that they should not be expected to do more work than common 

 sense and experience shows that they are physically capable of 

 doing efficiently. 



" 3rd. That they should live on the premises, and board there, 

 and that they be thoroughly well cared for. 



" "We may add that we are equally of opinion that private 

 nurses (of whom vast numbers must be needed) should receive a 

 hospital education. A training establishment for such nurses has 

 been established at the Bath United Hospital ; and we hope to see 

 the day when most of our large hospitals shall have attached to 

 them not only medical schools, but schools for the education of 

 both hospital and private nurses." 



It only remains that I should add to these observations an 

 estimate of the number of a hospital nursing staff for a general 

 hospital in Sydney. This should consist of a lady superintendent ; 

 a staff of sisters, in the proportion of about one to every thirty 

 patients ; trained nurses, in the proportion of about one to every 

 ten patients ; cleaners, and cooks ; one wardsman for the male 

 syphilitic ward, and from two to four bath and carrying porters 

 are also required. 



A CONVALESCENT HOSPITAL, strictly speaking, should 

 be devoted to convalescing patients, and be considered as a branch 

 establishment of the general hospital ; but in a comparatively small 

 community like this it will probably be desirable, as it undoubtedly 

 would be economical, to place in it many chronic cases of disease. 



It is evident that patients afflicted with many forms of chronic 

 disease, as well as those convalescing from acute attacks, do not 

 require the same frequency of professional visits, the great nursing 

 care, or the variety of appliance in treatment which those suffer- 

 ing from acute disease and severe injury demand. Itis unnecessary, 

 therefore, that they should occupy the valuable beds of the more 

 expensive central town hospital. 



I am induced to recommend that the two classes (convalescent 

 and chronic) should be accommodated in the same establishment, 

 though in separate buildings, because — 



1st. They require a similar degree of professional advice and 

 attendance, and a similar character of diet. 



2nd. They both benefit by having more extensive grounds for 

 exercise than can usually be obtained in town. 



3rd. The original cost of erection, and the annual cost per 

 occupied bed in a hospital for the reception of both these classes, 



