Much has been done of recent years to improve the conditions of service for workers in institutions, and there is still room for amelioration.  Particularly is this so with regard to the long hours on duty and insufficient leave, due, chiefly, to shortage of staff.  Increase is also urgently needed in the salaries in every department so that the nurses may be able to make provision for old age.  When, as now, so many of them are dependent on a pension as the only provision for their old age, they are bound to stay at one institution for the whole or nearly the whole of their lives—­an arrangement which is not to the benefit of either party, for “change is necessary to progress, and the tendency is, from long years of service in one place, to narrow and lose the adaptability of earlier years.”

More arrangements are needed for the recreation of the nurses when off duty, especially in institutions situated in the country.  Swimming baths would be a real boon; the beneficial effects of this form of exercise upon both nerves and body being too well known to need further comment.  Its value also in promoting mutual helpfulness is by no means negligible.  Reading-rooms, apart from the general common-room, are very valuable, as are also tennis courts where they can be arranged.  All these, of course, mean expense, but, if the better class woman is to be attracted to the work, her interests must be considered.  Moreover, healthful recreations, apart from their benefit to the nurse herself, must re-act favourably on the patients.

IX

NURSING IN THE COLONIES

Colonial nursing is usually undertaken by those who possess the spirit of adventure, and do not mind the prospect of pioneering work.  Love of novelty, strong interest in fresh scenes and peoples, a desire to make more money than can in most cases be made in England, help a nurse in colonial work, provided that work really means her life, and she loves it.  But let it be emphatically stated that the nurses who are not wanted in the colonies, in any capacity, are those who are failures in their work in England, or who simply leave the dull work of the old country with the object of having a good time abroad.  Such women may do immense harm in countries where it is essential to the Empire that English people should be looked up to with respect and admiration, and where almost the most important part of an English nurse’s work (quite the most important if she is working in a hospital), is to make the native nurses, of whatever race they may happen to be, see the dignity and possibilities of their profession, and be stirred with the desire to become proficient themselves.

No special training is required for colonial work.  A thorough all-round training, including midwifery, a high standard of nursing ethics, a knowledge of hospital organisation, and good business abilities are needed.  The rest is chiefly a matter of temperament and constitution.  It goes without saying that a nurse for foreign climates, whether tropical, as in the majority of colonial posts, or subject to extremes of heat and cold, such as in Canada, must be physically strong; she should also be of an even temper and philosophical disposition, easily adaptable to climate, conditions, circumstances, and racial peculiarities.