General nursing / by Eva C.E. Lückes.

  • Lückes, Eva C. E. (Charlotte Ellis), 1854-1919.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: General nursing / by Eva C.E. Lückes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    be a kind-hearted and devoted woman, ready to sacrifice herself to any extent if the need arises; but, if she has an abrupt manner, a sharp way of speaking, and what is some- times spoken of as a disagreeable way with her, the patient cannot be expected to accredit her with virtues of which he perceives no evidence. When it can be truly said of a nurse that she never renders the most disagreeable service un- graciously, or looks as if it were the slightest trouble to her, she will have gone a long way towards earning the well-de- served gratitude of her patient. It will be well for the nurse herself, and for all with whom she comes in contact, if she can always remember that services pleasantly rendered are doubly acceptable. It is hard for a patient to be waited upon and made feel that the nurse regards what she is doing for him as a trouble. It is not easy to be grateful for help re- luctantly bestowed. In days when nurses are never tired of saying that they love the work, they must be very careful that their manner corresponds with their words, and give their patients a chance of realizing, by the way in which their wants are attended to, what this love for the work really means. Of all people in the world nurses should remember the injunction, Be pitiful, be courteous. It is especially when patients are weak and helpless and irritable that nurses need to be gentle and considerate towards them. The manner of a patient towards his nurse may often leave much to be desired, but a nurse will find that often when he appears to take a kind of perverse satisfaction in seeing how sullen or annoying he can be, he will be secretly feeling grateful to the nurse for her gentleness and forbearance with him. No one is at his best when he is ill and su^ferinr^ It is not reasonable to expect it. It is not only that ill- ness affects different temperaments in different ways, but diff'erent illnesses will affect the same person differently, as far as temper and irritability are concerned. It may sometimes