The Employment of Female Nurses in the Male Wards of Mental Hospitals in Scotland

Ten years ago I was requested by the secretary of the MedicoPsychological Association to open a discussion at the annual meeting of the Association on this subject. It was then regarded by some asylum medical officers as " the topic of the hour," largely because of certain views on administration which I had expressed and certain innovations in methods I had made at the Stirling District Asylum. This method of caring for the insane has again come into prominence, on account of the somewhat alarming position that has been created by the shortage of male attendants in asylums. No class of the community has done its duty by voluntary enlistment for the war more loyally, and the difficulties caused by the departure of attendants, and the impossibility of getting suitable men to replace them, have been relieved in many asylums by the introduction, for the first time, of female nurses on the male side.