It is of the utmost importance that everything should be in perfect readiness when the surgeon arrives. The nurse will do well to go over the list carefully, so that nothing may be missing.
TO PREPARE A ROOM
FOR AN OPERATION.
By Jessie McCallum,
Graduate Johns Hopkins School for Nurses.
From the American Journal of Nursing.
1. The room selected for the operation should be near the bath-room, as a porcelain tub filled with bichlorid solution of the strength of 1: 1000 makes an excellent arrangement for disinfecting the washbowls, pitchers, platters, plates, etc., which are to be used during the operation for the solutions, instruments, needles, and ligatures.
2. If the carpet cannot be removed, it may be protected with oilcloth, rubber sheeting, or newspapers, over which sheets can be pinned.
3. The windows can be frosted by rubbing sapolio on the inner surface, thus preventing any possible observation from the outside.
4. Two small tables placed together to form one of the required size, old blankets being used to make the tables of uniform height and also to furnish a comfortable surface for the patient, can be used for an operating-table, care being taken to cover the blankets with a bed-rubber or table oilcloth and a sheet, securely folded under, and tied to the table with muslin bandages.
5. A Kelly pad can be improvised by tightly rolling a blanket and covering it with a rubber sheet, two ends of which are to be pinned together and used to conduct the solutions into the foot-tub below.