Hints on the Home Nursing of Sick Children.

Otago Witness, Issue 2360, 18 May 1899, Page 52

Hints on the Home Nursing of Sick Children.

QUALIFICATIONS OF A GOOD CHIL-

DREN'S NURSE,

Power of self-control, firmness without harshness, tidiness, promptitude, and so forth, are, or course, no less essential than in the case of grown-up patients. Children are, as a rule, singularly uncomplaining even under long-continued suffering ; but at the same time it is requisite that the nurse should possess a cheerful, equable disposition, which will prevent her from being irritated by the fretfulness she may, perhaps, have to encounter, and also that without mawkish sentimentality she should have a genuine love and sympathy for little children. Nurses who do excellently with adults frequently fail in this last respect.

ON TAKING CHARGE of a sick child, besides the usual history of the illness, a stranger should, by inquiry and observation, obtain all possible infor--mation in regard to the disposition when in ordinary health and, as far as may be without risk of offence, the previous training, whether the child has been habitually repressed and treated too strictly or spoilt by too much indulgence, and by being allowed to make a fuss about trifles. Even apparently trivial or exaggerated stories may be listened to if there is time, although the nurse should, of course, form her own opinion as to their real value.

Every baby and young child haß little ways and even a language of its own, and a newcomer, unless provided with some key

to the puzzle may meet with many difficulties, or even completely fail in her task. It must be admitted that the strict routine of a hospital, which in its proper place is so indispensable and as a rule works so satisfactorily, does not help a trained nurse to encounter certain difficulties met with in home nursing, and it is here that her natural gifts come to the front. Whilst ever keeping in her mind a high ideal standard she must recognise the fact that in most households it "is impossible to carry this out in every detail, and that she may best attain her end, i.e., the welfare of her patient, by adapting her methods to circumstances and by wise concession in comparatively unimportant matters. She, should not forget that, especially when the illness is believed to be dangerous, the relatives of any patient, not to say the parents of a sick child, are often themselves, in a sense, ill from anxiety, and may consequently show some irritability or want of consideration, which should on no account be resented. Still less should a nurse convey the impression, by a supercilious or dictatorial manner, that she has come to supersede the relations or the usual attendants on account of their incompetence. It is, of course, true that in some cases those nearest akin to the little Eatient are so defective in the natural qualications of a nurse, or so unstrung by distress or prolonged watching, that they are the last persons one would wish t0..: see in the sick room, , but in such instances more may be gained, as a' rule, by tact and persuasion than by laying down the law in a manner which is almost ■ sure to provoke antagonism. — The Hospital.