You think its hard now?

The history of nursing has always fascinated me. Not just the more recent history, which entailed glass IV bottles and the sharpening and re-use of needles, but also the older history of nursing.
Here is a partial listing of floor nurse duties, circa 1887 (the italics are all my comments)
(source: http://faculty.mc3.edu/rbenfiel/NUR109/NUR109NursingHistory/sld003.htm)
• Sweep, mop, dust patient’s room (what no environmental services?)
• Bring in the scuttle of coal (no facilities management?)
• Clean the chimneys, wash the windows weekly. (yikes!)
• Work everyday from 7a – 8p, with a two hour break for church on Sundays (if that’s not mandatory overtime, I don’t know what is!)
• Smoking, drinking, going to the beauty shop or to dance halls is reason for disciplinary action. (this is where I think the good moral character part of the Nurse Practice Act originated.)
• You will earn a raise of .05cents a day after five years of good service, assuming that you don’t owe the hospital any money.

Nurses were also responsible for preparing patient’s meals, a scary thought for me. Florence Nightengale, in her classic “Notes on Nursing” cautions:

“A nurse should never put before a patient milk that is sour, meat or soup that is turned, an egg that is bad, or vegetables underdone. Yet often I have seen these things brought in to the sick in a state perfectly perceptible to every nose or eye except the nurse’s. It is here that the clever nurse appears; she will not bring in the peccant article, but, not to disappoint the patient, she will whip up something else in a few minutes. Remember that sick cookery should half do the work of your poor patient’s weak digestion. But if you further impair it with your bad articles, I know not what is to become of him or of it.” (source: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/nightingale/nursing/nursing.html#III)
A great resource if anyone is interested in the historical aspects of nursing is The American Association of the History of Nursing. (http://www.aahn.org/) I hope in the future to explore more interesting tidbits of nursing history.