Hospital Duties | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 23, 1864

Hospital Duties.

As non-combatants who are not able to pay the $300 commutation money, are allowed to serve in the hospitals or take care of freed men, a sketch of hospital duties may be of interest. The following is by Geo. Dawson of the Albany Evening Journal:

"The business of the day begins at five o'clock. At that hour the nurses busy themselves in cleaning spittoons, washing the faces and arms of the patients, sweeping out the wards, and making everything tidy. Meanwhile, the dressers are at work, cleansing and bandaging the wounds, causing intense pain by the necessary probings, pressures, plasterings, &c., and a great deal of comfort by their generally cheerful reports to the patient of the improvement perceptible. If they do not always tell the truth, they are pardonable, for it would be very cruel to reveal every bad symptom, so long as there is hope of ultimate recovery. By 7 o'clock everything is ready for breakfast, which is of three classes: Regular, which is for the mass of the patients, well enough to eat heartily; special, which is for those whose wounds or health require more delicate food; and extra, for those (generally officers) who pay their dollar a day for subsistence. Each class of food is substantial and excellent, well cooked, and neatly served. The stomach would be very

delicate which would revolt at any of it.

After breakfast, there is more sweeping and mopping, bed-changing, &c., and two or three times a week a general scrubbing. At regular intervals through the day, there is a distribution of milk-punch, beef-tea, stimulants of various kinds, medicines, &c., according to the directions for the day, placed at the head of the bed of each patient. Dinner at 12, supper at 6, and the retirement of the day, nurses and the extinction of lights at 9. Then come the night-watchers and silence. For hours together, sometimes, there is the stillness of death—when you can hear the tread of a mouse; and yet, amid this stillness, there is a vast deal of pain, quietly and uncomplainingly borne by the noble fellows who have suffered in battle. God bless them for their heroism in the field, and for their equal heroism on their weary couches! A grateful country will remember and reward them. Throughout the night, at fixed hours, there is the distribution of medicines and stimulants, the wetting of bandages, and such other attentions as are required for the comfort of the patients. And so wear away the long weary hours of the night."