The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1884-09-04
Home Nursing.

Apart from the helpless tediousness
| of long illness, which alone may af-
| feet the patients temper and cause
varying degrees of irritability, there is,
with some diseases, an accompanying
| fretfulness or moodiness most difficult
to manage. So marked may this be-
come that, occasionally, the patient
seems to have changed his character,
| and the most amable and unseIfish in
| health may become the most impatient
| and exacting in illness. The trained
nurse, accustomed to watch the effects
| of disease, VIII understand and make
allowance for such perversion; but in
private nursing the patients friends
often suffer acutely from manifestations
of i'll temper, for which they could only
| account on moral grounds.
There is such q thing as spelling q
patient. even though he be past the age
we generally associate with the word
"spoil. Illness often brings back
! some of the wayward peevishness of
childhood, and you get such things to
contend with as positive refusal to take
food or medicine, or to comply with
some order of the doctors. As re-
CARDS the question of how far to give
in to a patients whims and fancies,
there is no better general rule than
tn s: oppose his wishes only on ques-
Lions of right and wrong; and, when
opposition becomes a necessity, use
special efforts SO to keep our self-con-
troll as to avoid all expression of anger
Or impatience.
How far you succeed in steering
your patient through such troubled
waters will depend greatly upon what
measure you possess of that valuable
gift, sympathy; in other words, the
power OF putting yourself in another's S
place, seeing from his point of view,
and feeling with him in his difficulties.
A hard, cold, or even merely narrow
nature can not be trained into a really
good nurse; and. indeed, as a broad
rule, lack of health and lack of SYM
patby are the only two absolutely in
surmountable obstacles in the way of
those who desire to be helpful in the
sick-room.
For observe that the qualities of self
control, cheerfulness and patience,
though much easier to some than to
others, are within the reach of all who
earnestly strive to possess them; and,
moreover, each and all are capable of
being developed and cultivated to an
almost unlimited extent Sympathy, on
the other hand. though capable of de-
fNAO1hACnb D} Us pOSSGsSDIS -
one of those natural gifts which no
amount of training can impaTt, and
which is no mole within the reach Of
all than is that good health without
which attempts at nursing can not but
end in failure. Given these two special
gifts of health and sympathy, and you
have the s'born NURSE needing, in
deed, much patient care and training,
but one who may confidently count up
on success.
Various other qualities and habits,
such as humility, gentleness. firmness,
order and accuracy, are useful in nurs-
ing. There are also various gifts, as
good hearing and sight, cleverness of
fingers. and natural quickness of ap-
prehension and of movement, which,
though very desirable, are not absolute
ly Indispensable and on these it is not
necessary to dwell Those who have
them may rejoice; and those who have
not need not be disheartened. as they
can very well be dispensed with, pro-
vided there is thorough. conscientious
effort made to acquire those more nee
essarY things which are to be had for
the trying. Harper Weekly.