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

  • Florence Nightingale
Date:
1946
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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    want of observation of the person who does it, is equally difficult to understand^although very often the readee is too amiable to say how much it hurts him. One thing more:—From the flimsy manner in ll^^]^^^'' which most modem houses are built, where every step on the stairs, and along the floors, is felt all over the house; the higher the story, the greater the vibration. It is in- conceivable how much the sick suffer by having anybody overhead. In the solidly built old houses, which, for- tunately, most hospitals are, the noise and shaking is comparatively trifling. But it is a serious cause of suf- fering, in lightly built houses, and with the irritability peculiar to some diseases. Better far put such patients at the top of the house, even with the additional fatigue of stairs, if you cannot secure the room above them being untenanted; you may otherwise bring on a state of rest- lessness which no opium will subdue. Do not neglect the warning, when a patient tells you that he Feels every step above him to cross his heart. Remember that every noise a patient cannot see partakes of the character of suddenness to him; and I am persuaded that patients with these peculiarly irritable nerves, are positively less injured by having persons in the same room with them than overhead, or separated by only a thin compartment. Any sacrifice to secure silence for these cases is worth while, because no air, however good, no attendance, however careful, will do anything for such cases without quiet. Note.—The effect of music upon the sick has been scarcely Music, at all noticed. In fact, its expensiveness, as it is now, makes any general application of it quite out of the question. I will only remark here, that wind instruments, including the human voice, and stringed instruments, capable of continuous sound.