Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1897-09-16
HINTS ON NURSING.

| i - Wv ~ - ~ - ~ 49,
That queen of nurses, Florence Night
ingale, gives these sensible suggestions
regarding noise and conversation in the
sick room:
Never to allow patient to be wax
ed, intentionally or accidentally, is a
sine qua non Of all good nursing, If
he is reused out of his first sleep, he is
almost certain to have no more sleep.
1t is curious, but quite ineligible
fact, that if a patient is walked after a
few hours instead of a few minutes
sleep, he is much more likely to sleep
again, because PAIN, like irritability of
brain, perpetuates 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 81 all.
important. 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 at night; but 1t is
exactly the reverse with the sick gen
erally-the more they sleep, the better
will they be able to sleep,
l have often been surprised at the
thoughtlessness (resulting in cruelty,
quite Internationally of friends or of
doctors, who will hold long converse
ton just in the room or passage adjoin'
ing 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 talking abont him.
If he is an amiable patient, he will try
in most cases to occupy his attention
elsewhere, and not to listen; and this
makes matters worse, for the strain
upon his attention and the efforts he
makes are so great, that it is we'll if he
is not worse for hours after. If it is
whispered conversation in The same
room, then it is absolutely cruel; for it
is impossible that the patients atten.
ton should not be Involuntary strain
ed to hear.
Walking on tiptoe, doing anything in
the room very slowly, are injurious for
exactly the same reasons. A firm,
light, quick step, steady, quick hand,
are the desiderata not the slow linger.
ing, shuf1ling foot, the timid, uncertain
touch. Slowness is not gentleness,
though it is often mistaken for such;
quickness, lightness and gentleness are
quite compatible.
Again, if friends and doctors did but
watch, as nurses can and should watch,
the features sharpening, the eyes grow.
ing almost wild, of fever patients who
are listening for the entrance from the
corridor of the persons whose voices
they are hearing there, these would
never run the risk again Of creating
such expectation or irritation of mind.
Such unnecessary noise has undoubt-
eddy induced or aggravated delirium in
many cases. have known such; in
one case death ensued. 1t is but fair
to say that this death was attributed to
fright. 1t was the result of long
whispered conYersation, within sight of
the patient, about an impending opera.
ton; but any one who has known the
more than stoicism, the cheerful cool.
ness, with which the certainty of an
operation will be accepted by any pa.
tent capable of bearing an operation
at all. if it is properly communicated to
him, will hesitate to believe it was mere
fear which produced, as was averred,
the fatal result Of this instance. 1t was
rather the uncertainty, the strained ex-
pectation as to what was to be decided
upon. | need hardly say that the other
common cause-namely, for doctor or
friend to leave the patient and com.
municate his opinion on the result of
his visit to the friends just outside the
patients door. or in the adjoining room
after the visit, but within hearing or
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