Private Duty Nursing (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ... there is no good reason against her doing so, the nurse must manage to do all the small tasks that can be accomplished outside the sick-room early in the day, though it is a less convenient arrangement for herself. She must not only respect expressed preferences, but her imagination must be on the alert, ready to perceive, without the need of words, what is agreeable or disagreeable to her charge. She must carry out the doctor's orders to the last detail, as she did in the hospital, but she must do it without the air of command which is so irritating to the helpless. A patient once told me that when she was ill she always felt that her doctor and nurse were in league against her, and that she was powerless in their hands. She was not an unreasonable woman, either. Make your patient feel that you and she and the doctor are in league for her good, if there must be a league. If both nurse and patient have a sense of humor, half one's problems are solved. A little fun goes a long way toward shortening the weary hours of a long day, --but one should beware of ill-timed mirth. A bright face is good to see, and we should cultivate the spirit that produces it, but there is an irritating sort of cheerfulness, a tiring exuberance, which is present in season and out of season, and which would make a well person weary. It is well to keep family worries out of the sick-room, but not to tell untruths in order to do so. Some persons have the pernicious habit of shielding a patient from worry by deceit, and the nurse may be asked to fall in with the scheme. It is a great mistake to do so. When a helpless person feels that she is being deceived, she suspects every one and worries more than she would have done over the original trifle. A nurse should...