Hints for the Sick Room.

Otago Witness, Issue 2677, 5 July 1905, Page 68

Hints for the Sick Room.

—Things tho Amateur Nurse Should Rear in Mind. — If possible before the patient is put into the room, ckan oiit of it e^cry superfluous article of furniture. If it is a contagious case of fever of any sort take out ruys or carpet, send away tho portieres and wool window curtains and table spreads, and in case of severely contagious diseases, Biieh as smallpox or scarlet fever, even tho books should be removed.

This sounds very cheerless, but the next step changes all that.

Put up snow white lawn curtains, frilly and dainty, that can be looped --back for plenty of sunshine, and are easily washed. Have a white cottoa bedspread. The white dimity spread used at hospitals is both tho best and prettiest, washes as easily as a sheet, and does not hove to ba ironed. Find dainty, pure white, washable linen for bureau and the many convenient little tables Reserve one table entirely for the doctor's use, for glasses, medicine bottles, a tray, and a teaspoon.

Keep this table always exquisitely fresh. If pretty- linen spreads don't hold out, cover it with a fresh towel every day or two, and never leave a soiled plate or tumbler in sight of tho patient, or give medicine' or milk in a class once used.

If there is hot running water in tho room the nurse should rinse dishes as soon as used Otherwise they should be put outside the door, where a small table stands ready to save steps.

If the carpet is gone a strip of matting should be run from door to bed and window to soften the sound, or a nurse may wear noiseless slippers.

Bring up from the dining room or sitting room one or two growing plants and put them near the window on a white covered stand, where the pa+ieni can watch them without effort. Do not have many scented flowers in a sick room and none at night, when tho patient is weakest and needs the freshest air.

The best plan is to put a rose in a tall vase or a few carnations near the window prettily arranged. These give pleasure without the bad results of heavy odours.

There should be a book or two about so that the patient may feel that the weary hours could be lessened if he wished. Most sick people do not like being read to — a point for every nurse and kind friend to bury deep in her inner consciousness. They submit to it sometimes, but ore usually restless afterwards. With the room white, cheerful, and exquisitely clean, next prepare the bed with all easily washable coverings, cotton (not linen) sheets and pillows, and woollen blankets that can be washed with antiseptics.

Plan to have two sets of sheets and pillow cases always in use, so that every morning 1 the bed can be entirely changed, the sheets removed and put out to air for a couple of hours, and then warmed and folded away ready for the next morning-, with 'two fresh from the laundry well ■warmed at least twice a wceik.

The patient should be moved to the left side of the bed as a folded sheet is laid! on the right, then lifted for a second as the freih sheet is opened and the under sheet pulled out. Then tl-e fresh sheet is put over, and for a while an exh-a blanket added to avoid chill.

The question of ventilation is very important, yet most easily managed. A screen is absolutely -essential.

At night one window should be opened a little at the top and one at the bottom, and the screen should bo placed around the bed. During; the day one -window- should) always be opened, with a screen in front of it, out some 2ft to allow the air to spread easily.

Every morning after the bed is changed the windows should be opened v/ide, the patient well bundled up, and the screen put in front of the bed if he is sensitive ■jo cold. Then breakfast, a little visiting if the doctor will permit it, or a book, if the patient really wishes it.

The nurse's dress is a matter of distinct importance to herself and the patent.

Wool frocks must be discarded. A cotton dress, very simply made, and fresh once a week, with daily fresh white aprons and stocks, is tho .best and most convenient ready costume. It is pleasantly fresh to the eyes of the patient, and' it is the exceptional woman who does not look her prettiest in the semi-professional garb. A wool dress, which gathers up microbes in rich harvests, is a menace to her own health and to her family afterwards. Antiseptics must be used by the nurse in cleaning ths room, washing the dishes and bedding, and bathing her own hands after touching tho patient. Most antiseptics are unpleasant in odour and injurious to tho hands, so that patient aa well as nurse is apt to dread their free use. A simple pure borax powder is a, harmless, con-odorous disinfectant

Dissolved in warm water, it may be used to clean -woodwork, furniture, bedding, and di-diO'?. A pinch of it in the morning bath i-5 noi only helpful but invigorating to the patient, and it is an admirable mouih wash. It is the amateur nurse's best f " 1.

menu. The question of talking with a patient must bo regulated by the good sense of the nurse, as must her own cheerfulness and patience and self-sacrifice. She must consider her own powers of endurance, and she must oat regularly most nourishing food, out of the siok room, if possible. It is an important fact that all the suggestions made hero will lessen, not increase, thfe work and worry of the nurse, and in the end lessen the expenditure of money as well, not to mention the- more important consideration that they all count for thepatient's quick recovery and subsequent good' health. Poor nursing is followed by slow convalescing, and economy of care by an aftermath of niitiOj.- illnesses. — The Sun.