Over-harshness is in some ways worse than
over-easiness, because it makes less pleasant the relation between nurse
and patient, and the latter should regard the former as her "next
friend." Let the nurse, therefore, place upon the doctor the burden of
decision in disputed matters; his position will not be injured with the
patient by strict enforcement of the letter of the law, while the
nurse's may be. But one nurse will suit one patient and not another: so
that I never hesitate to change my nurse if she does not fit the case,
and to change if necessary more than once.
The degree of seclusion should be prescribed from the first, and it is
far better to find that the original rules may be profitably relaxed
than to be obliged to draw the lines more strictly when the patient has
at first been indulged. For instance, it is well to forbid the receipt
of any letters from home, unless anxious relatives insist that the
patient must have home news. In that case the letters should be mere
bulletins, should contain nothing, no matter how trifling, that might
annoy a too sensitive person, and, most important of all, should come to
the nurse and by her be read to the patient.
Pages:
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60