Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/311

295 Nursing in other Countries 295 service. . . she should not from reasons of false modesty leave the most important parts of the care of the sick to attendants, but it should be her highest dignit}^ and honour to have no ignorant person touch her patient. . . . She should not wear a dark habit and immense headdress which impedes work and becomes a vehicle for micro-organisms, but choose a light washable dress. Until such reforms can be made the religious Sister can never be a model nurse in the modern sense of the word. Signora Celli also investigated the conditions of the servant nurses. They were often accepted at the age of eighteen or even younger. They some- times lived in the hospital, sometimes outside. Attempts were made to teach them by lectures, but they were so illiterate that this often did more harm than good, and they remained densely ignor- ant of aseptic technique, of dietaries for the sick, and of all the little cares that make a patient com- fortable. Most hospitals made no provision for the future of their attendants. As they grew old they were dismissed, and their wages were so small that they learned to extract fees even from the poorest. Their hours of continuous work ranged from twelve to forty-eight. In 1908 Signora Celli pubHshed the results of a second inquiry and noted some ameliorations in