66. Poultices at Joyce Green Hospital

Key words/phrases: The Nursing Record, probationer nurses, Queen Victoria, preliminary training, kaolin poultices.

No. 66

An extract that I was reading recently in an on-line copy of The Nursing Record, (Jan 10, 1889 Vol 2) declared that :

“Where possible, all probationer nurses will be given the opportunity to attend weekly lectures on nursing topics given by Matron, a sister or one of the medical staff. These will include subjects such as … (and here I have omitted the full list) … and the application of poultices.

Then, ( ... it continued ...) should she pass her “first year" examination - which is not normally difficult to do - she will be promoted to the rank of Junior Nurse and will be allowed to take temperatures, to do some of the dressings and to assist Sister with the bad cases.”

So my question here is : Do you remember being taught how to make and apply poultices ?

It certainly seems difficult to grasp that nearly 80 years further on from then - at a time when Queen Victoria was still on the throne - that student nurses were still being taught to apply kaolin poultices during their preliminary training.

However, perhaps what is even more amazing is that kaolin poultices are still available for use today in pre-prepared foil-wrapped form or in tubs.

Of course many of you reading this will recall poultices being used on the medical wards of Joyce Green Hospital, in the management of chest problems. Do you remember cutting off lengths of lint from a roll, the corners of which would then be mitred and cutting off an almost-matching sized piece of gauze (or unfolding some gauze swabs for the same purpose) ? Simultaneously you would be heating your tin of kaolin in a saucepan of boiling water or in the ward instrument-steriliser. Then with all the deftness you could muster, spreading the kaolin evenly on to the surface of the lint before putting the gauze piece on top of the kaolin to prevent it from sticking to your patient’s skin ... and finally, folding the inch-wide edges of the lint over to finish off the procedure ?

Then the poultice had to be taken as quickly as possible to the patient’s bedside and subsequently applied to his/her chest, their side or wherever the warmth was required. Perhaps you were taught to take it to their bedside between two warm dinner plates or in a pre-warmed stainless steel kidney dish or container ?

If you had half a dozen or even more of these to make and apply during your day shift or night shift no doubt you developed your own routine for getting these ready and into place ? If you were lucky you sometimes had an nursing auxiliary with you who was experienced in preparing these in the ward kitchen or clinical room ?

But setting aside your recollections of how you used to manage to fit ‘creating’ these poultices into your otherwise busy schedule, I doubt that you will have forgotten the benefit of these to some of your patients of long ago and the sheer symptomatic and psychological relief that they got from these ‘labours of love’ that were created in the wards of Joyce Green Hospital ?