Notes on NursingFirst published in 1860, this short work was developed by nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale for use at her training school in England, but it is meant for anyone entrusted with the well-being of another and offers commonsense suggestions for all caregivers charged with looking after the sick and injured. While some of the information is dated, there remains a wealth of timeless advice, as well as an intimate peek into a moment in medical history. Topics covered include: . ventilation and warming . noise . bed and bedding . light . cleanliness . and the benefit of variety in a patient's surroundings British nurse and teacher FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (1820-1910) established the Nightingale Training School in 1860 and transformed nursing from a profession for poor women into a noble occupation. She was awarded the Order of Merit by the Queen of England in 1907 for her contributions to medicine. |
Contents
| 12 | |
| 24 | |
PETTY MANAGEMENT | 35 |
NOISE | 44 |
VARIETY | 58 |
WHAT FOOD? | 69 |
BED AND BEDDING | 79 |
CLEANLINESS OF ROOMS AND WALLS | 87 |
PERSONAL CLEANLINESS | 93 |
OBSERVATION OF THE SICK | 105 |
CONCLUSION | 126 |
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Common terms and phrases
arrowroot attendants bed-rooms beef tea better body breathing called carbonic acid cause chicory chimney clean cleanliness close cold craving damp death delirium tremens diarrhoea diet disease doctor door dust dysentery effect effluvia English patient fancy fever foul air fresh air friends give hospital ical injury keep kind known leading questions least less light look meals means measles medicine milk minute Mount Blanc musty necessary ness never think night noise nourishment nurse nurse's observation painful patient's room perhaps person in charge physician poison private house reparative process rience room or ward sanitary saturated scarlet fever scorbutic scrofula seen servants sewer shut sick person sick room skin sleep small-pox smell speak suffering sure surgical taking food teach tell things thought tient tion utensil ventilation wall washing weak patients woman women
Popular passages
Page 134 - And what nursing has to do in either case, is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.
Page 64 - EVERY careful observer of the sick will agree in this, that thousands of patients are annually starved in the midst of plenty, from want of attention to the ways which alone make it possible for them to take food.
Page 20 - Another extraordinary fallacy is the dread of night air. What air can we breathe at night but night air ? The choice is between pure night air from without and foul night air from within. Most people prefer the latter. An unaccountable choice. What will they say if it is proved to be true that fully one-half of all the disease we suffer from is occasioned by people sleeping with their windows shut ? An open window most nights in the year can never hurt any one.
Page 136 - ... rights" of women, which urges women to do all that men do, including the medical and other professions, merely because men do it, and without regard to whether this is the best that women can do; and of the jargon which urges women to do nothing that men do, merely because they are women, and should be "recalled to a sense of their duty as women...
Page 46 - If it is a whispered conversation in the same room, then it is absolutely cruel ; for it is impossible that the patient's attention should not be involuntarily strained to hear. Walking on tip-toe, doing anything in the room very slowly, are injurious, for exactly the same reasons.
Page 39 - Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion. Remember, he is face to face with his enemy all the time, internally wrestling with him, having long imaginary conversations with him.
Page 63 - Believe me, almost any sick person who behaves decently well exercises more self-control every moment of his day than you will ever know till you are sick yourself. ' Almost every step that crosses his room is painful to him ; almost every thought that crosses his brain is painful to him : and if he can speak without being savage, and look without being unpleasant, he is exercising self-control. ' Suppose you have been up all night, and, instead of being allowed to nave your cup of tea, you were...
Page 4 - Every-day sanitary knowledge, or the knowledge of nursing, or, in other words, of how to put the constitution in such a state as that it will have no disease or that it can recover from disease, takes a higher place. It is recognized as the knowledge which every one ought to have— distinct from medical knowledge, which only a profession can have.
Page 32 - ... vigour descending into a grandmother perhaps a little less vigorous, but still sound as a bell and healthy to the core, into a mother languid and confined to her carriage and house, and lastly into a daughter sickly and confined to her bed.