Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- Introductory
- I Ventilation and Warming
- II Health of Houses
- III Petty Management
- IV Noise
- V Variety
- VI Taking Food
- VII What Food
- VIII Bed and Bedding
- IX Light
- X Cleanliness of Rooms and Walls
- XI Personal Cleanliness
- XII Chattering Hopes and Advices
- XIII Observation of the Sick
- Conclusion
- Supplementary Chapter
- NOTES ON NURSING
I - Ventilation and Warming
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2011
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- Introductory
- I Ventilation and Warming
- II Health of Houses
- III Petty Management
- IV Noise
- V Variety
- VI Taking Food
- VII What Food
- VIII Bed and Bedding
- IX Light
- X Cleanliness of Rooms and Walls
- XI Personal Cleanliness
- XII Chattering Hopes and Advices
- XIII Observation of the Sick
- Conclusion
- Supplementary Chapter
- NOTES ON NURSING
Summary
The very first canon of nursing, the first and the last thing upon which a nurse's attention must be fixed, the first essential to the patient, without which all the rest you can do for him is as nothing, with which I had almost said you may leave all the rest alone, is this: To keep the air he breathes as pure as the external air, without chilling him. Yet what is so little attended to? Even where it is thought of at all, the most extraordinary misconceptions reign about it. Even in admitting air into the patient's room or ward, few people ever think where that air comes from. It may come from a corridor into which other wards are ventilated, from a hall, always unaired, always full of the fumes of gas, dinner, of various kinds of mustiness; from an underground kitchen, sink, wash-house, water-closet, or even, as I myself have had sorrowful experience, from open sewers loaded with filth; and with this the patient's room or ward is aired, as it is called—poisoned, it should rather be said. Always air from the air without, and that, too, through those windows, through which the air comes freshest. From a closed court, especially if the wind do not blow that way, air may come as stagnant as any from a hall or corridor.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Notes on NursingWhat It Is, and What It Is Not, pp. 8 - 28Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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