| |
| being absent without | |
| leave was either based | |
| upon a misunderstanding | |
| on her part or otherwise | |
| insufficient as the main | |
| ground of dismissal, | |
| might it not be possible | |
| or equitable to grant | |
| her some compensation | |
| after 9 years' service? | |
| As a Nurse trained in | |
| the "Nightingale Fund"1 | |
| School at St. Thomas' | |
| Hospital 2 & afterwards | |
| as Nurse at the St. | |
| Marylebone Infermary 3, | |
| I have known her well | |
1. This fund of approximately £50,000 was established when a "public meeting was held in London on November 25, 1855, under the presidency of the Commander-in Chief, the Duke of Cambridge" (Griffin and Griffin, p.143). The purpose of the fund was to "further nursing education". Miss Nightingale believed that nurses should be trained in hospitals specifically organized for such a purpose and that the nurses should live in a home fit to form their moral life and discipline. The school opened with fifteen probationers on June 24, 1860. According to Cecil Woodham-Smith, the "object of the school was to produce nurses capable of training others. The Nightingale nurses were not to undertake private nursing, they were to take posts in hospitals and public institutions and establish a higher standard. They were to be missionaries, and as such they must be above suspicion...The future of nursing depended on how these young women behaved themselves. As a result, candidates to become Nightingale probationers were subjected to minute examination and there was great difficulty in finding young women of suitable character" (pp. 346-348). Miss Nightingale never visited the school.
2. St. Thomas Hospital was established in 1215.
3. According to Sir Henry Burdett's 1908 book How to Become a Nurse, the St. Marylebone Infirmary was a London training school for nurses. Only women between the ages of 21 and 28 were accepted as trainees. The program consisted of three years of training with the first year in the home. During the second and third years, the trainees were attached to the infirmary as ward nurses. Lectures were given by medical superintendents, class instruction was provided by the Matron and Home Sisters, and practical instruction was provided by Ward Sisters. St. Marylebone was located in Notting Hill W and offered 744 beds. Burdett stated that a first year student could expect an annual salary of £10. (p. 91).
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