7 - Changes in the three hospitals compared, 1960–1968

Summary

It was assumed that social and clinical changes after 1960 would be most marked at Severalls, where the room for improvement was greatest, and least marked at Netherne. An analysis of the changes at the hospitals will not only show whether this hypothesis is correct, and whether all differences have been removed by 1964, but it will also afford an opportunity to discover whether the interactions between social and clinical change hold true for each hospital taken separately, which would add greatly to their substance. The first part of this chapter is concerned with these matters. The second part includes material collected in 1962 and in 1968, on the basis of which the time relationships of changes in social conditions and clinical state will be discussed.

Changes within each hospital, 1960–1964

SOCIAL CHANGES IN THE THREE HOSPITALS, 1960–1964

The changes shown by the summary scores on five environmental variables are shown in Table 7.1 (p. 225). At Netherne, personal possessions had increased and outside contact was greater. Although the decrease in hours doing nothing did not reach significance, there is a significant improvement in occupation score. At Mapperley, the nurses’ attitudes were more favourable but there was a decrease in personal possessions. At Severalls, there was a very highly significant improvement on all five scores. The amount of time spent doing nothing was still higher than at the other two hospitals in 1964, and the amount of contact with the outside was still less. However, the social environment provided by Severalls in 1964 was little different from that at Mapperley.