Nurses’ Home

‘The Committee Earnestly appeal to you to assist them in raising a sum of £5,000 to build and equip a Nurses Home and Training Establishment in connexion with this Hospital…’

1897 Appeal for funding for a Nurses’ Home at Dr Steevens’ Hospital.

1897 plan for Nurses’ Home.

The 1897 plan provided potential benefactors with ten reasons for donating to Steevens’ Hospital:

It is the oldest Hospital in Dublin, having carried on its work of mercy among the poor and suffering in the city for a century and three quarters.
It is entirely undenominated, sickness and poverty alone entitling to admission, irrespective of any questions of religious persuasion.
It is situated at the western end of the city, and is largely used by the employees of the Breweries, Distilleries, Railway Workshops, and other Manufactories in the district. It may truly be described as the “Workingman’s Hospital”. About 12,000 patients are treated annually.
It is the Hospital used by the Members of the Royal Irish Constabulary.
The Nurses at present reside in the main building of the Hospital, and occupy space which could be availed of for Children’s Wards and other purposes.
It is very important for the health and comfort of the nurses themselves that, when off duty, they should have a suitable home to live in, with cheerful surroundings.
The Hospital being in the immediate vicinity of the Great Southern and Western Railway terminus, Nurses could be despatched to any part of Ireland at the shortest notice.
When a Nurses’ Home is provided, a much larger staff can be maintained for out-nursing, and the profit derived from those who can afford to pay for the Nurses’ services, can be applied to the more efficient nursing of the sick poor who are unable to pay.
The Governors of the Hospital believe that the permanent establishment of such a Home as is proposed, would be a suitable Memorial of the completion of the 60th year of Her Majesty’s reign, and in accordance with her well-known sympathies.
Most of the other general Hospital have lately received large assistance from the public through Bazaars, etc., while this is the first time STEEVENS’ HOSPITAL has made a general appeal for help.’

The appeal proved to be successful and in December 1900 the Nurses’ Home opened. As Kirkpatrick (1924) notes, it was ‘one of the first of its kind erected in Dublin.’

Photograph of Nurses’ Home, c. 1924 (from Kirkpatrick’s History).

Sources

Anon, 1897 Appeal for funding for a Nurses’ Home at Dr Steevens’ Hospital.
Kirkpatrick, T. P. C. (1924; reprinted 2008) The History of Doctor Steevens’ Hospital Dublin, 1720-1920 (Dublin).