Regulations for Army medical services / War Office.

Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Regulations for Army medical services / War Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    16G Appendix No. 6. General Principles of Sick Nursing. It being of great importance that the woman under training should also have a clear and correct conception of the general principles of sick nursing, a few lectures should be devoted to this purpose. The instructions here appended should be amplified and illustrated by the medical officer as occasions offer. 1. The Sick Room.—It should be kept scrupulously clean, but excessive sweeping, rubbing, and other move- ments creating noise and raising dust should be avoided. The least possible amount of furniture and hangings should be retained in the room, as tending to diminish cabic space, impair ventilation, and attract dust, infectious emanations, &c. Means should be taken to secure a free ventilation, and as much sunlight as possible, without actually exposing the patient to draughts or to glaring light. Care should be taken to regulate the amount of fire in the room, so that the temperature should remain at about 60°. It is useful to have a thermometer hung away from the fire and near the patient, to show this. It should also be remembered that gas-burning and other artificial lighting tend to vitiate the air, and heat the room, and they should be employed only sparingly. In most conditions of weather, in most rooms, it will be possible and proper to open the windows freely from the top for a reasonable time or times every day. Patients are not more likely to catch cold when properly covered up in be.! ,than when moving about dressed. A general ■cheerfulness of arrangement, or even ornamentation when practicable, should not be neglected in a sick room, and the general feeling should be one of order, quietness, and repose. The fumigation and disinfection of a sick room should only be carried out under the direction of the medical officer, but the immediate removal of all dis- charges from the sick, and the thorough purification of the vessels before replacing them should never be neglected. The same rules apply to all dishes which have been used for food and drinks. If possible, cooking should not be carried on in a sick room, although drinks or other articles may be warmed or kept warm, when it is otherwise necessary to have a fire. Access to a sufficient supply of hot and cold water is very desirable. 2. The Care of the Patient.—There are very few cases in which it is not possible, and indeed imperative to sponge daily with tepid water, at least, the hands and face of the sick person. At longer intervals there is