Bulletin . s costly to the nurse for a number of monotony of idle hours on duty—of being onhand twelve hours while her patient needs her butsix, is demorahzing. The long day, fifteen andsixteen hours, sometimes, makes it practicallyimpossible for her to have any outside tends to break her health and her spirit. Theirregularity of her work precludes any oppor-tunity for further study, for any participation incommunity activities. If there is no illness, thereis no work for her. No one but the private dutynurse knows the anxiety of waiting for the sum-moning telephone to
Bulletin . s costly to the nurse for a number of monotony of idle hours on duty—of being onhand twelve hours while her patient needs her butsix, is demorahzing. The long day, fifteen andsixteen hours, sometimes, makes it practicallyimpossible for her to have any outside tends to break her health and her spirit. Theirregularity of her work precludes any oppor-tunity for further study, for any participation incommunity activities. If there is no illness, thereis no work for her. No one but the private dutynurse knows the anxiety of waiting for the sum-moning telephone to ring, especially during thedull season. In our questionnaires we asked nurses to givetheir reasons if they were planning to go out ofprivate duty. And even though the majority ofthem were averaging only forty-nine cents perhour, their first two reasons did not concern theirincomes but were in regard to the irregularity ofthe employment and the length of the working GEISTER: NURSING—HEARSAY AND FACTS 25. Length of working day, for cases cared for by 1,409private duty nurses, Feb. 21-28. (3f these cases Vs werein hospital, -ji in home. New York State, 1926. day. The nurse feels the sharp contrast betweenher isolated life and that of the women in otherfields of activity who have regular employmentseven hours a day, five and a half days a week;who are given holidays and vacations and sickleave on pay; who more often than not are re-ceiving more compensation than is she; and whohave their evenings free. Irregular and Uncertain Employment The private duty nurse herself bears the costof every moment she is not working, of every dayspent in resting after, a particularly arduouscase, of every day of waiting as a precautionarymeasure after a contagious case. We have reasonto believe that this time amounts to about fourmonths out of the year for the average nurse;making the $ she receives for one days workreally cover one and one-third days of her life, orreally making her days e
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectsurgery, bookyear1916
