This story is “Jane” by Mary Roberts Rinehart.
Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and articles. Many of her books and plays were adapted for movies. I Take This Woman (1931), starring Carole Lombard and Gary Cooper, was an early sound film based on Rinehart’s works.
While many of her books were best sellers, critics were most appreciative of her murder mysteries.
The phrase “The butler did it,” which has become a cliché, came from Rinehart’s novel The Door, in which the butler actually did murder someone, although that exact phrase does not appear in the work.
She attended the Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses at Pittsburgh Homeopathic Hospital, where she graduated in 1896. She described the experience as “all the tragedy of the world under one roof.”
This story takes place in such a hospital. It feels almost autobiographical, except Jane is a patient, not a nurse. Enjoy!