352
529.
One ward in the new hospital was for men, and the matron reports that after a little while she was able to do a little more in the ward. She went in and out at stated intervals and gave medicines. At first the men wondered at this, but after a while the bright clean glass and a kind word soon won their confidence. Mrs. Stevens' own chair coolie always carried the medicine tray, so that the proprieties were not unduly outraged.
YEAR OF PLAGUE
1894 was the year of the great plague and the Hospitals were turned into refuges for the Chinese Christians who were turned out of their plague-stricken houses. The people who had plague were nursed in a mat-shed hospital erected by the Government. Miss Davies of the London Missionary Society, Miss Jones of the Church Missionary Society, and Sisters from the Italian Convent volunteered to help with the nursing. A Kwai also volunteered but the matron considered that the plague hospital with all its horrors was no place for a Chinese girl, and she was sent back to the boarding school in Waan Tsai to wait for happier days. She returned in August when the hospitals were re-opened.
When Mrs. Stevens later returned from furlough her mind was full of plans for training more nurses and of building a small Maternity Hospital. Some of her plans were to be realized sooner perhaps, than she thought. The great step forward during 1901, Mrs. Stevens says, was the sending of a nurse down to the Alice every morning to do the dressing for the women out-patients. It was easier now to get women to train, but there were still many difficulties. One girl left because people died sometimes and Mrs. Stevens' comment is worth quoting "Poor A Po, I am afraid she will find no place on this earth where people do not die sometimes even if less seldom than in hospital."
It seems that the opening of the Maternity Hospital in 1904 commenced another stage in the history of nursing in these Hospitals, and indeed in this Colony. There may be some of you here this evening who were present at the opening ceremony. Uniform was introduced at this stage. A little while ago I was talking to one of the first candidates who entered for training and she told me how she had to hurry up to get the last blue band stitched on her sleeve to be ready to present herself for the opening of the Hospital by Lady May. Three nurses were admitted for training as soon as the building was opened. They lived in the Hospital and did a two years' training. A few were admitted for midwifery only, but the majority had previously taken a year's general nursing in the Nethersole. At this time a woman doctor was appointed Dr. Sibree, a member of the London Missionary Society. She not only taught midwifery to the nurses but later when these women were taken on by the Hongkong Government as Government midwives, Dr. Sibree was in charge of their work, and she was the doctor whom the midwives had to call.
PROGRESS AHEAD
The Nurses Hostel was opened in 1914, the guiding spirit at that time being Miss Raynor, whose classes were well-attended. The standard of nursing was raised, and from then on nursing was looked upon by the Chinese community as an honourable profession, and girls from various schools in the Colony began to think of nursing as a career. They registered their names for vacancies quite a long time before they were old enough to commence.
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