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    HOSPITAIi FOR SICK CHILDREN. 119

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    Among Sick Once , The There - The Intere...

    Meanwhile , however , " the ground-floor of the new house , the entrance' to which is quite distinct from that of the hospital , has

    been converted into an infant nursery , for the reception , during the day timeof infants and children of an earlier age than that at

    , which they are admissible to infant schools , and whose mothers are compelled to get their living away from home . Such establishments

    have had great success in Paris , and , even on the limited scale on which they have been tried in this countryhave proved a great boon

    , to the poor . The ample space now at the command of the committee has enabled them to make the-arrangements of this nursery

    more complete than was practicable in other institutions of the same kind in the metixrpolis . They trust that , while it will be in great

    measure , if not entirely , self-supporting , it will also serve as a model for others , and prove invaluable as a training school for pupil nurses .

    This arrangement , however , is of course , only temporary , and will cease the instant the finances of the hospital permit the committee

    to convert these rooms into wards for in-patients ; and the nursery can then be removed without any loss of its utility to the spacious

    outbuildings of the institution . " * The same space , for want of funds to carry out at present the

    original intentions of the hospital , which has enabled the committee thus to establish a temporary day infant nursery , also puts it in their

    power to offer accommodation to a certain number of young women , desirous of being trained as children ' s nurses for domestic service ,

    at the small weekly payment of six shillings to defray the actual expense of board . The committee are all the more desirous to give

    publicity to this fact , as the demand made for the supply of trained nursesby families residing in all parts of the country , at present

    far exceeds , the supply , and an opportunity is here presented of at once acquiring valuable training for the nursery and certificated

    qualifications for a service which stands waiting to welcome the candidates .

    Nor must it be _forgotten that these pupil nurses will not only be fully qualified to act as general nurses to children in private families ,

    but that the training and experience acquired in the sick wards of the hospital will insure their proficiency as sick nurses in the many

    diseases and illnesses incidental to children . The better educated and more intelligent among the large class of

    young women desirous of engaging in the occupation of nurses in private families , have here that rare opportunity at present among

    women of starting on their career trained to the duties they undertake ; an opportunity , the advantages of which they will themselves

    assuredly realise in the comparatively easy , because efficient , discharge of those duties , and in the confidence and esteem of their employers .

    The intention of the committee is "to improve the condition and raise the character of the nurse" and we would most strongly urge

    ; upon young * women of this class , from the ages of sixteen to thirty ,

    and upon the consideration of their relations and friends , the invalu-

    Hospitaii For Sick Children. 119

    HOSPITAIi FOR SICK CHILDREN . 119

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1860, page 119, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041860/page/47/