Linda Richards
American Nurse
1841-1930 A selection from
REMINESCENCES OF AMERICA'S FIRST TRAINED NURSE
Narrated by Beth Richmond
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THE FIRST AMERICAN TRAINING SCHOOL
FOR NURSES
Among the prominent young women
physicians of America was Dr. Susan
Dimock, a woman of Southern birth who,
after taking a course of medicine in the
North, went to Germany to complete her
medical education. She was there four
years, and during her stay became interested
in the work of the deaconesses at Kaiserswerth. This suggested to her reform in
the nursing methods of America, which she
inaugurated at the New England Hospital
for Women and Children, of which she took
charge on her return from abroad.
Although only twenty-five years of age,
she showed wonderful administrative ability in addition to her unusual gifts as a
physician. Previous to this date, September 1, I872, nurses had received instruction
in the care of obstetrical cases only. Now
the work was regularly organized for the
definite training of young women in general
nursing.
The hospital was originally in two small houses, one fronting on Pleasant Street, the
other on Warrenton Street, Boston; and it
was there that I was the first student to enroll my name in the first class of five nurses
in the first American training school. On
September 15, only two weeks after the
opening of the school, we moved out to
the new hospital where it now stands, on
Dimock Street, formerly called Codman
Avenue.
We nurses did very different work from
that done by pupil nurses nowadays. Our
days were not eight hours; they were nearer
twice eight. We rose at 5:30 A.M. and left
the wards at 9 P.M. to go to our beds, which
were in little rooms between the wards.
Each nurse took care of her ward of six
patients both day and night. Many a time
I have got up nine times in the night; often I
did not get to sleep before the next call
came; but, being blessed with a sound body
and a firm resolution to go through the
training school, cost what it might, I maintained a cheerful spirit, We wore no uniforms, the only stipulation being that our
dresses should be washable.
After the first six months a night nurse
was employed, and the day nurses were
allowed to go to bed and to sleep. We soon
had a second class of nurses also, and when
I came away at the end of the year we had
seventeen nurses in the school, instead of the
five when the school opened.
Every second week we were off duty one
afternoon from two to five o'clock. We had
no evenings out, no hours for study or recreation, and no regular leave on Sunday.
Only twice during the year was I given the
opportunity to go to church. No monthly
allowance was given for three months.
The course was for only one year, and
embraced training in medical, surgical, and
obstetrical nursing, but the kind and amount
of instruction was very limited. Twelve
lectures were given by the visiting staff of
physicians, and the only bedside or practical
instruction we received was from the young
women interns, who taught us to read and
register temperature, to count the pulse and respiration, and the methods of performing
the various duties as they were assigned.
We were supposed to understand and act.
If complaint was made that we did not do
well, we were called to account, and an intern was directed to give further instruction. This instruction usually amounted to
a consultation between intern and the nurse
as to the best way to do the service in question, the intern often being no wiser in the
art of nursing than the pupil nurse. Great
care was taken that we should not know the
names of the medicines given. All bottles
were numbered, not labeled. We had no
text-books, nor did we have entrance or final
examinations. Each nurse was quietly given
her diploma as she completed her year of
training. Any distinction which has come
to me as the first trained nurse in America
arises solely from the fact that Iwas the
first student to enter the newly organized
school, and so the first to graduate from it.
Dr. Dimock sent me to nurse one outside
patient during my year of training. It was
a case of pneumonia, and I was to do the
day nursing, leaving the sisters to care for
the patient at night. The doctor made daily
visits. My orders were all verbal. I applied poultices to the chest once in three
hours, bathed the patient, gave the medicine
and the prescribed food. After one week,
till the patient recovered, I went twice daily
to see that all things were done properly,
and daily made a report to Dr. Dimock.
Nurses were sometimes sent to bring in
a maternity case, and were always sent home
with such. I was of ten sent from the hospital upon errands for Dr. Dimock. One
rainy Sunday she requested me to take a
message to a physician in Roxbury. The
once was new and the young man had not
the appearance of having more patients
than he could attend to. Mistaking me for
a medical intern of the New England Hospital, he received me most graciously, read
the note I handed him, and was about to
give me a verbal message for Dr. Dimock.
I asked him if he would be kind enough to
write his reply. I cannot help smiling even
now when I think of the instant change in
his manner when he learned that I was a
nurse and not a doctor. He wrote his reply
and, with the air of having received an insult, handed it to me, and turned in silence
to take up work at his desk. Student nurses
were a novelty then, and had frequent proofs
that they were not highly thought of.
Dr. Zakrzweska, one of the visiting staff,
occasionally invited me to her office when
I was off duty, and gave me much valuable
instruction as well as excellent advice. The
influence of her personal interest was invaluable to me.
When I look back over the year I spent
at the New England Hospital ln 1872 and
1873, and compare the training I received
with the advantages of today, 1 wonder we
turned out to be of any value. It does not
seem quite loyal to my school to tell how
very little training we received, for every
one in authority gave us of her best nursing
knowledge. We pioneer nurses entered the
school with a strong desire to learn; we
were well and strong; we were on the watch
for stray bits of knowledge, and were quick
to grasp any which came within our reach.
What we learned we learned thoroughly,
and it has proved a good foundation for the
building of subsequent years.
At the time of my graduation I was
asked to remain in the New England Hospital as head nurse. The Massachusetts
General Hospital had just organized a
training school and invited me to take
charge of it. From the Hartford Hospital
in Connecticut there came also an offer of a
position as head nurse in the surgical ward.
But after long consideration and on the
advice of friends, I accepted the proffered
position of night superintendent in the
Bellevue Hospital Training School in New
York.
Bellevue
The training school of Bellevue had
been organized in May, 1873, under
the direction of an English Sister of the
All Saints Order, who had had hospital
experience in London. Sister Helen was a
wonderful woman, though I do not think
she would todaypass as swell-trained nurse.
She had the gift of organization; she knew
how to distribute work to those best qualified to do the part well; she was a thorough
and strict disciplinarian; she greatly prized
good work, though she was not given to
many words of commendation ; and she required much of those who belonged to the
school. This little woman robed in black,
with a close-fitting white cap, went noiselessly about the wards, taking in at a glance
what might escape the notice of one not
well trained in the art of observing.
The course of Bellevue Training School
was at that time two years. There was no class work, and lectures were given only
irregularly. After my arrival at Bellevue,
I spent a day and a half in the wards, to
become familiar with the methods of work
before taking charge of night duty. Fortunately, in those days so long ago, I was
blessed with a retentive memory and a
faculty for quickly learning the location of
wards. But in the short time given me,
my powers were taxed to the uttermost to
become familiar with one hundred patients,
to learn the names of the doctors and the
division of which each had charge, to know
where each senior doctor roomed (for only
the night superintendent was allowed to
call a doctor at night) , to know where to
find the supplies in each ward, and to learn
many other things too numerous to mention.
It must be known that the patients in
Bellevue Hospital at that time were from
the slums of New York, a class of people
with which I had never come in contact
before; and very different from those in
the New England Hospital, where most of
them were private patients, reined and
educated. At first I had a feeling of fear
of these poor sick, most of whom came into
the hospital more or less under the influence of stimulants. But this feeling soon
passed away, giving glace to one of profound pity, and later An many cases to one
of true affection. There, in the midst of
all the sin and poverty, were found real
pearls; and no true woman can come in
daily touch with a ward filled with patients
without soon learning to look for and find
the Jewels, and thereby make of herself a
stronger woman.
I shall never forget my first experience
on night duty at Bellevue. No sooner had
the day nurses left the wards than the gas
was turned so 1ow that the faces of the
patients could not be distinguished. One
could see only the dim outlines of figures
wrapped in gray blankets lying upon the
beds. If any work was to be done, a candle
must be lighted, and only two candles a
week were allowed each ward. lf more
were used, the nurse had to provide them..
At midnight all the steam was turned off;
at 3 A.M. it was turned on again, and the
crackling of the pipes would waken every
one in the wards. How cold and dismal
were the hours between midnight and three
o'clock in the morning!
The captain of the night watch made
several rounds of the wards through the
night, and at 5 A.M. he turned off all the gas,
leaving us in total darkness. Patients took
advantage of this condition to leave their
beds and give trouble in gangways. At the
end of my first month I told Sister Helen
I could, not be responsible for the patients
unless I could have light in the wards. She
said, "Go to the warden and tell him."
Under the solemn promise (always faithfully kept) to use no more gas than would
enable us to fulfill tour duties, and to turn
of all gas as soon as it was light, we were
allowed night light. So one step in advance
was taken.
Written night orders and reports were
at that time unknown. Night nurses went
on duty at 8 P.M. I was on duty at 7:30 P.M.
I saw each head day nurse as she left her
ward, received her orders, and transmitted
them to the night nurses. In the morning
I gave reports to the head nurses as they
began their day duty. All this was verbal.
When I had been on duty nearly a year, I
kept notes of one case to be written up by
a nurse for Sister Helen. Each nurse was
required to write up a case. The doctor of
the division saw the report and thought it
was for him. He was glad of it, as it helped
him in his notes on the case, and after that
he asked me to write reports of all serious
cases. This was the beginning in Bellevue
of a custom now considered an elemental
necessity in all hospitals, and in all serious
cases of illness under the care of trained
nurses. Class instruction at Bellevue began
in the autumn of 1874, on the return of
Sister Helen after a summer spent in Eng-
land. Bellevue Training School sent nurses
out for private duty during the first years of
its existence. Even graduate nurses of the
New England Hospital who went there to
take charge of wards had this experience,
but I was given no outside duty while there.
During one month of my time in Bellevue, my services were transferred to the
lying-in wards. The medical staff would
not allow the training school to have these
wards unless a woman who had had training in that branch of nursing could be put
in charge. The New England Hospital
gave this training to their students, So I was
placed in charge of the lying-in wards, and
another New England Hospital graduate,
Mrs. Walhaupter, who went to Bellevue as
head nurse of a ward) was given charge of
the night duty in these wards. We had the
wards just twenty-seven days, when all the
lying-in and waiting women were moved to
pavilions on Bluckwell's Island, and I was
changed back to my original work as superintendent of night duty. During those
twenty-seven days we had twenty-seven
births. I was obliged to be present at all
births, night and day, and I was the only
nurse allowed to be present. The reason
for this was the prevalence of an epidemic
of puerperal fever, which of course caused
a very high death rate. At first, under this
arrangement, there was marked improvement; but it did not last, and the removal
above spoken of was decided upon. There
the pavilion accommodations were rough,
but the dread fever was stamped out. No
one who saw the old ward for waiting
women would have wondered at the amount
of fever or the large death rate. Another
fretsome feature was that the waiting
women had to sit there and make shrouds.
I used to wonder if they speculated as to
whether they were making their own.
Two of my classmates from the New
England Hospital were at Bellevue with
me. Though graduated, we chose to take
the final examinations at the end of the first
year, and we found no difficulty in passing.
I have always been glad that I went to
Bellevue, because of the very valuable experience I gained there, though the training did not compare favorably with what
we had had in the New England Hospital,
where far greater nicety in caring for patients was required. I have often since told
my nurses, during my long life in hospital
work, that experience comes only in hard
work, and I certainly had my full share of
that while at Bellevue. My perfect health
stood me in good stead. Many was the time
I went into the wards at 7.30 in the evening
and did not sit down until 8.30 the next
morning, when I changed my shoes to go
home. When I came away, two people
were given my work to do and my responsibilities to carry.
After the completion of my year's work
at Bellevue, it was with sincere regret that
I refused the kind offer to remain as Sister
Helen's assistant; but a desire to take up
the special work of training school organization induced me to go to a new field. More information about Linda Richards from Wikipedia
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