Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-02-14
FLORENCE Nightingale ON Noise in the
Sick Chamber.

SICK CA0m per-
Florence Nightingale has just published
book entitled '.NOtcs on Nursing" We
extract the following from the chapter ON
noise:
sNever to allow patient to he walked,
Intentionally or accidentally, is IL sine qua
non of all good nursing. If he is aroused
out of his first sleep, lie is almost certain
to have no more sleep. 1t is curious
but quite Ineligible fact, that II IL patient
| is walked after few hours instead of q
| few minutes sleep, he is much more
| likely to sleep again. Because pain, like
| irritabiIity of brain, PerPctuates and in
tcnsifies itself. If you have gained
respite of either in sleep you have gained
| more than the mere respite. Both the
probability of recurrence and of the same
| intensity will be diminished; whereas both
will be terribly increased by want of
sleep. This is the reason why sleep is so
all-importunt. This is the reason why
patient walked in the early part of his
sleep loses not only his sleep, but his
power to sleep. a healthy person who
allows himself TO sleep during the day,
will lose his sleep ut night. But it is
exactly the reverse with the sick generally,
the more they sleep, the better will they
be able to sleep.
~ have often been surprised MT the
thoughtlessncss (resulting in cruelty,
quite uniutcntiOnally) of friends or doc
tors, who will hold long conversation
lust in the room or passage adjoining to
the room of the patient, who is either
every moment expecting them to come in,
or who has just seen them, and knows
they are tulking about him. If he is an
umable patient, he will try to occupy his
attention elsewhere and not to listenj and
this makes matters WOrsc-tor the strain
upon his attention and the effort lie
makes, arc so great that it is well ii he is
not worse for hours after. If it is a whiS
pered conversation in the same room,
then it is absolutely cruel, for 1t is impOs-
sible that the patients attention should
not he involuntarily strained to hear
Walking on tip-toe, doing anything in tile
room very slowly, are injurious, for exact
lv the same reasons. y firm, light, quick
step, a steady, quick hand are the desid-
crata; not the slow, lingering, shuIflng
foot-the timid, uncertain touch. Slow
ness is not gentIcness. though ii is often
mistaken as such; quickness, lightness,
and gcntlencss are quite Compatible
Again, if friends and doctors did but
watch. MS nurses can and should watch,
the features sharpening, the eyes growing
almost wild, of fever patients who are
listening for the entrance from the cor
ridOr of the persons whose voices they
are hea ring there, these would never run
the risk again of creating such expectn-
ton or irritation of mind. Such unueccs-
snry noise has undoubtedly induced OF
aggravated delirium in many cases.
have known such in one case death en-
sucd. Itis, hat iiair to say that this death
WAS attributed to fright. 1t was the result
| of a long whispered conversation, within
sight of, the patient, about an impending
operations; but anyone who has known the
more than stOicism, the cheerful GOODNESS,
with which the certainty of an operation
| will be accepted by any patient, capable OF
benring an operation ht all, If it is prop
erly communicated to him, will hesitate to
i believe that it was mere fear which prOdW-
ced, ns was averred, the fatal result in this
instance. It was rather the uncertainty,
the strained expectation as to what was to
be decided npon.
81 need hardly say that the other COM
mon cause, namely, for a doctor or friend to
leave the patient and communicate his op-
inion on the result of his visit to the friends
lust outside the patients door, or in the
adjoining room, after the visit, but within
hearing or knowledge of the patient, is, il
possible, worst of all.
at is, think, alarming, peculiarly at
this time, when female ink-bottles are per-
! petnPly lmpFesSlhg upon u.s. oman Ptl-
! ticular worth and general missionariucss,
to see that the dress of women is daily
more and more uniting them forany mis-
! sion or usefulness at aIi. II is equally I'M
| fitted for all poetic and all domestic purpo-
scs. man is now moro handy and far
less objectionable being in sick-room
than woman Compelled by her dress,
every woman either shuffles or waddies,
only man can cross the floor of a sick
room without shaking it. What has be-
,is Iirrhf sfnn-tInc fir1r, Iiphk