HINTS ON HOUR NURSING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 12

HINTS ON HOUR NURSING.

Miss Hooper, Jady superintendent of the lAfI A f !u t CWoh Young Women's Club, and the lecture was entitled "Hints on .Home Nursing. After a few introductory remarks, Miss Hooper went on to state that brain* and* common sense were just ac useful to a nurse as to a doctor. Domestic accomplishments such as bread-baking, washing, etc., turned' out such fine types of women that one might well be proud of them. Perohanoe she might ba speaking to some who had never waited on the sick. If so, let- them lose no opportunity of gaining a knowledge of it. buttering humanity could not do without nurses any more than it could do without dootorg. There was another kind of nursing—district nursing. In some homes. the ignorance of the simplest rules was appalling-, and a nuxse would -get no aid at all. • The speaker went on to speak of Qu^en Victoria's Jubilee Institute Fund and other agencies for nursing the sick poor in their own homes. Patients were often allowed' to get into a critical state before the nurse was called in. Such, creations as the St. John Ambulance Association helped to form the silver lining to the dark cloud of illness. Her* heai?erß might not be able to become trained nurses all at once, but let them remember that " knowledge va power," and be at first content to do Httlo things and to do them well ; make themselves efficient in simple cases. They should get themselves ussd to keeping their presen*9 of mind in en emergency. They would find ac they progressed that people who were not seriously ill often demanded more attention than those who were. They must in all cases not wait to ask what th& patient wanted or how he felt, but to find out those things for themselves. They must learn to control the temper, and watch their patient. Thene> was & value in little things. If the mother of a large family was to sit down at the end of the day and count up all the little things she had done for her family it would be a very l©ng list indeed. Relatives, as a rule, made poor nurses, ac they had not the control over the patients. Women and children were proverbially naughty when :11. As to the sick room, let them see, among other things, that the ohimney was clear and not choked, as was too often the case. The sick room ehould be as large as possible. If it was .badly ventilated a patient could make no progress. No cooking should be done there, and no foodF-or alcohol lent standing. All vessels must be kept scrupuously clean and disinfected. A piece of carpet lent an air of aomfort. They must be careful to regulate the light. Let .the night light be ac small aa possible. They must learn to discriminate concerning 1 noises, not to take everybody's advice 48 to remedies, not to use tablespoons for measuring medicine (they were not of a fiinllJa * size), but medicine glasses, which should always be washed after use. They should remember that drops of thin liquid were much smaller than drops of thick liquid,

and if thoy happflbed to make a mistake let them " own up " to the doctor, co as to have it remedied as soon as possible, bedtime for one keeping his bed should he taken to mean the same as ordinary .bedtime — 10 or 11 o'clock. In taking temperatures let them not fcrust to their own sense of touch, but to a chemical thermometer. The lecturer also gave pome valuable hints ooncerning visitors and food, read a tew Florence Nightingale rules on sleep, whispered conversations, tip-toeing, conciseness of spe-3ch, and decision, and concluded wtth a recital of the fine poem anent the woman and the lamp, the vision seen by th« wounded on the hospital wall.