Notes on nursing : what it is, and what it is not.

  • Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on nursing : what it is, and what it is not. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material is part of the Elmer Belt Florence Nightingale collection. The original may be consulted at University of California Libraries.

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    reasonable. The distinci-ion is this, if he is obliged to act, do not *'disturb him with anotlier subject of thou^^ht just yet; help him to do what he wants to do : but, if he has done this, or if nothing can be done, then ''disturb him by all means. You will relieve, more effectually, unreasonable suffering from reasonable causes by telling him the news, showing him the baby, or giving him something new to thiuk of or to look at than by all the logic in the world. It has been very justlv said that the sick are like children in this, that there is no proportion in events to them. Now it is your busi- ness as their visitor to restore this right proportion for them—to shew them what the rest of the world is doing. How can they find it out otherwise ? You will find them far more open to conviction than children in this. And you will find that their unreasonable intensity of sufiering from unkindness, from want of sympathy, &c., will disappear with their freshened interest in the big world's events. But then you must be able to give them real interests, not gossip. Note.—There are two clai=scs of patients which arc unfortunately becoming ^^^ ^'^^ more common every day, especially among women of the richer orders, to whom ^ ^/!^^^^. ^ all these remarks are pre-eminently inapplicable. 1. Tho.se who make health an paticnts pecu- €xcuse for doing nothing, and at the same time allege that the bein- able to do ^^^ ° ^^ nothing is their only grief. 2. Those who have brought upon themselves ill- generaiion. health by over pursuit of amusement, which they and their friends have most unhappily called intellectual activity. I scarce'y know a greater injury that can be indicted than the advice too often given to the first class to vegetate— or than the admiration too often bestowed on the latter class for pluck. XIII. OBSERYATIOX OF THE SICK. There is no more silly or universal question scarcely asked than What is the this, Is he better ? Ask it of the medical attendant, if you ])lea8e. use of the But of whom else, if you wish for a real answer to your question, g^^^^^^'^' ^^ ^^ would you ask it? Certainly not of the casual visitor; certainly not ot the nurse, while the nurse's observation is so little exercised as it is now. What you want are facts, not oi)inions—for who can have any opinion of any value as to whether the patient is better or worse, excepting the constant medical attendant, or the really observing nurse ? The most important practical lesson that can be given to nurses is to teach them what to observe—how to observe—what symptoms indicate improvement—what' the reverse—which are of importance —which are of none—which are the evidence of neglect—and of what kind of neglect. All this is what ought to make part, and an essential part, of the training of every nurse. At present how few there are, either pro- fessional or unprolessional, who really know at all whether any sick person they may be with is better or worse. The vagueness and looseness of the information one receives in answer to that much abused question, Is he better? would be