Page:The Journal of Tropical Medicine, volume 6.djvu/227
June 15, 1903.]
THE JOURNAL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE. 195
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June 15, 1903. THE CARE OF INVALIDS ON SHIPS.
AN invalid in the Tropics “ ordered home ”’ is frequently loth to leave his more or less comfort- able home or hospital to undergo the “ hard- ships’
He feels too ill to undertake the voyage, and > an invalid is subjected to on board ship.
May prefer to risk the chance of recovery in The life of an invalid
on board ship, even under the most advanta-
his tropical environment.
_ geous circumstances, is not, and never can be, anything but most trying and uncomfortable ; yet it is surely possible to alleviate in some “Measure his unenviable and dangerous position.
in many cases
THe Doctor.
We do not join in the universal condemnation of that much-maligned member of our profession, “the ship’s doctor.” It is the fashion to view' him as a being of inferior medical calibre, and one only .to be mentioned to be pitied or ridiculed. How unjust these statements are all medical men who have travelled are fully aware of, but the public have come to look upon ser- vice men, whether of the Army or Navy or of the merchant service, as bodies apart, and as belonging to a different professional species to the practitioners at home. The public services are doing all in their power to free their medical men from the opprobrium that has attached itself to these departments ; but the “ ship’s doctor ” is content to continue with the stigma which gossip has affixed to his calling. How this is to be removed we have pointed out more than once in these pages, and we would repeat that the main principle, to be aimed at, is that no medical man ought to be placed in charge of passengers or crews of ships sailing to and fro to tropical countries without a previous course of instruc-
tion in tropical diseases.
THe NURSE.
There is another element, however, in the management and care of an invalid which requires to be brought prominently forward. The doctor without a nurse is like the engineer without his stokers, or the captain of the ship without his officers. It is not the province of the doctor to nurse patients, although on board ship he often has to undertake the duties of both medical attendant and nurse. If, however, he devotes almost his entire attention to one patient others must suffer, and he is therefore neglecting his proper duty. A nurse is, and must in future become, an essential part of a ship’s company. In the meantime the patient is cared for by a friendly steward or stewardess; but “caring” for a patient is not nursing, and no untrained man or woman at the present day should be placed in such a position. The nurse in charge of patients from the Tropics, moreover, should have had experience of tropical ailments, and no nurse should be employed who cannot show
by her certificates that she has had such train-