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Classic
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page 409
HINTS FOR THE SICK-ROOM.
The sick-room should be the lightest, most cheerful, and best ventilated room in
the house. Patients in the sunny wards of hospitals recover soonest, and the
sick, in nearly all cases, lie with their faces to the light. Every thing should
be kept in perfect neatness and order. Matting is better than a carpet, though
when the latter is used it may be kept clean by throwing a few damp tea-leaves
over only a part of the room at a time, then quietly brushing them up with a
hand broom. A table not liable to injury, a small wicker basket with
compartments to hold the different bottles of medicine and a small book in which
to write all the physician's directions, two baskets made on the same plan to
hold glasses or cups, screens to shade the light from the eyes of the patient, a
nursery-lamp with which to heat water, beef-tea, etc., a quill tied on the
door-handle, with which the nurse can notify others that the patient is asleep
by merely passing the feather-end through the key-hole, several "ring cushions"
to give relief to patients compelled to lie continually in one position (these
cushions are circular pieces of old linen sewed together and stuffed with bran;
or pads may be used, made of cotton-batting basted into pieces of old muslin of
any size required), and a sick couch or chair, are a few of the many
conveniences which ought to be in every sick-room.
Pure air in a sick-room is of the utmost importance. In illness, the poisoned
body is desperately trying to throw off, through lungs, skin, and in every
possible way, the noxious materials that have done the mischief. Bad air, and
dirty or saturated bed-clothes, increase the difficulty at the very time when
the weakened powers need all the help they can get. Avoid air from kitchen or
close closets. Outside air is the best, but, if needed, there should be a fire
in the room to take off the chill. A cold is rarely taken in bed, with the
bed-clothes well tucked in, but oftener in getting up out of a warm bed when the
skin is relaxed. Of course any thing like a "chill" should be avoided, and it is
not well to allow a draft or current of air to pass directly over the bed of the
patient.
In disease less heat is produced by the body than in health. This decline occurs
even in summer, and is usually most evident in the early morning, when the vital
powers slacken, the food of the previous day having been exhausted. The sick
should be watched between midnight and ten or eleven in the morning, and if any
decline in heat is noticed, it should be supplied by jugs of hot water. A
sick-room, should above all be quiet. Any rustling sound, such as that of a silk
dress or shoes which creak, should be entirely avoided. If it is necessary to
put coal on the fire, drop it on quietly
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