About the nurse's diary
The web version of the nurse's log contains excerpts from the official log kept by ship's nurse Susanne Malmstrøm, who has been a voluntary member of the Sea Stallion from Glendalough's crew since 2004.
The nurse's log will journalise the crew's health and well-being, and will be an invaluable help in solving the nurse's principal task on board – diagnosing, relieving and curing sickness and preventing its spread among crew members. The official nurse's log is confidential. Personal information from the log must not be disclosed or published and will not be made available for research purposes.
Crew health is, however, of great scientific interest as much of the sickness occurring on board will be a direct result of the living and working conditions. Anonymised records of health and sickness patterns will thus contribute to a better understanding of what life was like aboard a longship – a mini Viking society.
In addition, crew health will be an important factor in interpreting ship performance data. If, for example, the skipper takes into account that half the crew are incapacitated by sickness, this may affect the documented sailing characteristics.
The ship's nurse will enter health data of scientific interest in the web version of the nurse's log in anonymised form.