ten o'clock at night
She was ultimately answerable for the smallest irregularity or accident , and had to report everything to the Mother Superior every evening after Vespers and before supper . During her week , every one in the establishment came to her for all matters that concerned the hospital and the nurses on duty by day or night ; but she had nothing to do with those who were sent out to private cases . They reported themselves and gave an account of their work to the Mother Superior , whenever they returned to the Convent . The supervising nurse for the week did not sleep in her cell , but lay down on a pallet bed behind a curtain , in her office on the first floor , close to the dispensary , where she could be called at a moment 's notice , though it rarely happened that she was disturbed between ten o'clock at night and five in the morning . The Mother Superior had introduced the system soon after she had taken charge of the Convent hospital , of which the management now differed from that of most similar institutions in this respect , for the most competent Sisters took turns in the arduous task of supervision , from week to week . At other times they went to private cases when required , or acted as ordinary nurses . Any one who has any knowledge of hospitals managed by religious orders is aware that no two of them work by precisely the same rules , and that the rules themselves are largely the result of the Mother Superior 's own experience , modified by the personal theories and practice of the operating surgeon and the principal visiting physician .