Practical hints on district nursing / by Amy Hughes.

  • Hughes, Amy.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical hints on district nursing / by Amy Hughes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    business. The doctor alone is responsible, and if the nurse undertakes the case for him she must not interfere. It is a hard lesson to learn, like the question of giving relief; but disre- garding it is so dangerous that too much emphasis cannot be laid upon it. A temptation that arises out of highly trained experience is prescribing for and treating minor ailments without a doctor. The nurse is often asked for a remedy for some childish ailment, to treat an ulcer of long standing, to apply poultices or other soothing applications, and it is difficult to refuse. But it should be a rule to do- nothing without doctors' orders, except under most special circumstances or in an emergency. It is very easy to fall into the habit of advising and prescribing for small maladies, but the nurse who steadily refrains is a gainer in the long run. When the doctors find she is content to remain within her own sphere, and not interfere with their work, they cease to regard her with suspicion and learn to trust her, knowing she will not try experiments upon their patients. Loyalty to Patients. The necessity of loyalty to patients does not always impress nurses sufficiently, though it is indispensable, and for district workers specially anything approaching to gossip must be scrupu-