Private Duty in China

Abstract

wealthy Chinese family has just telephoned for two nurses to take care of a woman of the household. It was certainly fortunate that I happened to answer the telephone. Until the sedan chairs come for us there is time for a note in my diary. This is only my second case since graduating from Turner Training School at Hackett. I don't feel one bit nervous but I suppose I shall when the family looks us over. If they are like most wealthy families there will be so many of them in their separate houses, connected by courtyards and passageways, that we may not be noticed. I hope the ancestral temple will not be near our apartment. To a Christian the smell of burning joss sticks and the sight of food set before the ancestral tablets is depressing. It is typical of ignorance and superstition. The chairs have arrived ... Bedtime. Our patient is a very sick woman, with high fever and delirium at times. As soon as I had donned my uniform today I took the patient's pulse, temperature, and respiration; bathed her with soap and water, cleaned her mouth, gave her some water to drink, combed her hair, and arranged her bed. I am sure I made her feel comfortable, for she went to sleep at once. Several of the many women of the family watched closely all that I did. Among them, of course, was the first wife or mother-in-law, who manages the affairs of the house as well as all the people living in it. When I was through the mother-in-law said it was not necessary to bathe the patient with soap and water as damp towels were sufficient. She said also that I was not to give the patient any water to drink as it would make her worse.