Prev | Current Page 196 | Next

Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1920

"Notes on Nursing What It Is, and What It Is Not"

For they are incapable
themselves, to all appearance, of the spirit of arrangement (no small
task) necessary for managing a large ward or dairy.
[26]
[Sidenote: Nurses often do not think the sick room any business of
theirs, but only the sick.]
I once told a "very good nurse" that the way in which her patient's room
was kept was quite enough to account for his sleeplessness; and she
answered quite good-humouredly she was not at all surprised at it--as if
the state of the room were, like the state of the weather, entirely out
of her power. Now in what sense was this woman to be called a "nurse?"
[27] For the same reason if, after washing a patient, you must put the
same night-dress on him again, always give it a preliminary warm at the
fire. The night-gown he has worn must be, to a certain extent, damp. It
has now got cold from having been off him for a few minutes. The fire
will dry and at the same time air it. This is much more important than
with clean things.
[28]
[Sidenote: How a room is _dusted_.]
If you like to clean your furniture by laying out your clean clothes
upon your dirty chairs or sofa, this is one way certainly of doing it.


Pages:
184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208