On this page
-
Text (1)
-
1 AMALIE SIEVEKING. 15
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
^ Amalie Wilheimine Sieyekin© Was Born I...
it U % § j neither with beyond , the win wh hi at e g nor her were tea officials permitted in the ., she morning to resolutel the 1 lest ordinary y it declined should nurses any arouse , indul would their gences take
dis-1 content , and even dispensed with , butter when she found that it was 8 not allowed to her companions . She not only took her equal share _.
If day and night , in attending the sick in the female ward , but , at the 1 request of the governors , assumed also the superintendence of the
male ward ; which involved having to make a round two or three I times nurses in were the at course their of posts each , besides night , the in order writing to out see of that the di the et-table male ,
for the whole hospital to hand to the kitchen department , and looking * over all that was sent from the laundry . She thus describes her
I daily work : "In the morning I have first to see that the wards are I cleanedthe beds made , and all put in order before the doctors come .
Three times , a day I hare to make the round of patients with the doctors , and as this goes on I must of course in the female ward
j take notice of all the prescriptions , as I am responsible for their I being followed , but in the male department I have only to observe
what diet is ordered and take account of that for the kitchen . Sometimes I have yet more writing to do , to send notices , for
inj stance , to the relatives of patients who may be brought there with-I out their knowledge ; and the care of the linen too falls upon me .
Should the number of patients increase considerably , I shall "busy 1 myself less with the special nursing in the female ward , as the
I general oversight is of the most importance . " Some days she was j unable to write at all to her inotker , for , as she remarked , "to be
superintendent of a hospital all night and have to write letters in the morning does not suit well together . Last night / ' she
continues , "I did not get to bed till four o ' clock ; I was up a , gain at j seven , when coffee was brought me , but I could not find time to
I drink it until past eleven , and except when I was writing the diettable , two half nours at dinner and tea , and another during which I
I was reading to the sick , I have not been able to sit down for ten j am minutes always together at my all best day when , and , there yet I do is most not feel to very be done tired / 7 ; indeed Another I
] day she wrote , " I had hardly any sleep last night , for many of the I patients were very bad indeedone alone requiring tlie constant care
, | of four nurses ; yet I feel no particular fatigue , I have an excellent \ appetite , eating far more than at home , and I think what I lose in
\ sleep is thus made up to me . " 1 ] but Nor in did several her care instances for the she patients was enabled cease with to render their convalescence them services ,
; "which were of life -long benefit to them after leaving the hospital . I She remarked concerning this , " If those who speak of my
undertaking as having been something quite superfluous' did but know what opportunities are afforded in such a hospital to do so much
more for the sick than merely to attend to their temporary bodily
necessities , they would , I think , judge a little differently . "
1 Amalie Sieveking. 15
1 AMALIE SIEVEKING . 15
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1860, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031860/page/15/
-