ABSTRACT
During the second half of the nineteenth century there was a new public concern for conditions endured by a large percentage of workers. In the late 1880s and early 1890s, this extended to nurses. An article in the Pall Mall Gazette – ‘White Slavery in Hospitals’ – triggered a nationwide public debate on the state of nursing. According to the Gazette, a nurse’s day was excessively long, dominated by repetitive, physically draining chores, few breaks and no time for meals: ‘from seven in the morning until nine at night. Hurry scurry – no rest, no relaxation, almost always on their feet’ (Pall Mall Gazette, 3 April 1889: 3). Of their living conditions, the article was no more generous: ‘A meagre meal . . . [then] off to bed in a large dormitory with the barest accommodation, and in winter so cold they cast their cloaks and day clothes upon the bed for the purposes of warmth’ (Pall Mall Gazette, 3 April 1889: 3). The article whipped a storm of correspondence (not confined to the Gazette) from nurses, doctors and patients, affirming its accuracy from personal experience. But equal numbers claimed the opposite, and the Nursing Record, in particular, took great exception to the sentiments expressed. Its editorials and letters left no doubt where it stood on the issue:
I . . . thank you for the very spirited way in which the Editorial columns of . . . Nursing Record have taken up the subject of ‘White Slavery’ . . . There has been far too much of ‘sham sentiment’ . . . about Nurses and their profession. . . . Our hours are long, and the work is exceedingly arduous. . . . But taking everything into account – hard work, ill health, and all other ‘grievances’ of a Nurses life – I think there are very few who would, or do, give it up unless absolutely obliged.
