Buying Beds
The ward beds should be of uniform height and style and well coated with enamel paint. In buying beds several important points are to be considered. If beds are offered which require two men, and a hammer, and a box of bolts and a wrench, to get them adjusted, they should not be considered, even if listed at a dollar each. They are dear at any price, when one considers the prices that prevail in the labor market, the strain on human patience, and the fuss that the moving of such a bed to another room or ward entails. It is a mistake, too, to buy beds without inquiring the length. Six-foot patients are not uncommon, and these find it very distressing when put in a bed that is too short. The bed should be at least six feet four inches in length.
In all hospital beds, there should be some kind of bar at the foot, that will keep the mattress from slipping down. Some hospitals have attempted to remedy this defect in beds by having boards sawed and placed as foot boards, but these are unsightly, and if the right kind of bed is bought such makeshifts will not be necessary. Before ordering a quantity of beds, it is well to get a trial bed, and thus be sure of the quality of mesh in the wire mattress, and that other details are satisfactory. No beds without back rests should be purchased, for in the majority of cases a back rest will be necessary. Separate back rests must be purchased and stored when not in use, and these are rarely as satisfactory as when attached to the bed.
It is well, also, to look closely into the plan of the back rest. Some have a round iron rod across the lower edge If such a thing is there, a sensitive, nervous patient will discover that rod, and worry till she or it is removed.
In ordering beds it is wise always to state the height from the ground that is desired, or low beds may be sent. About twenty-four or twenty-six inches is the usual height desired. It is possible to secure beds that can be adjusted to any desired height. The disadvantage of such beds is the difficulty of adjustment so that each corner will be exactly as high as the other corners. Each one must be measured, and the moving of the wire mattress up and down on the legs of the bed, makes it impossible to keep the enamel on the legs.
By all means hospital beds should have castors, and care should be exercised to see that these castors are so constructed and adjusted that they will not fall out every time the bed is moved. There is a great difference in castors and in their durability.
For the general wear and tear of a hospital, the cotton-felt mattress is giving better satisfaction than the hair mattress, and it is somewhat less expensive. It is a good plan to have a few pads made of bed ticking thickly inlaid with cotton batting. These should be made the same size as the bed, with rings at the corners to secure them. For very filthy or unconscious patients these pads are desirable, as they can be washed and boiled as often as necessary. A couple of these pads makes a bed as comfortable as a mattress.
Bed Making
The mattress should be carefully protected by a rubber sheet securely fastened at the corners. Every nurse thinks she knows how to make a bed before she goes to a hospital for training, but as a matter of fact very few do. It is sometimes a difficult thing for the nurse to learn, but it is one of the most important of the early lessons in ward work. The appearance of the ward beds, and the way in which they are made, is a good index to the character of the nurse in charge. If the spread is on crooked, the open ends of the pillow covers pointing in opposite directions, and the bed has the loose appearance of having been thrown together without method, one may naturally expect the general work of the nurse to be slipshod and unreliable. It is well to teach nurses to stand at the ward door occasionally, and take a critical survey of the ward, noting down the things out of order. A nurse who is watchful in observing signs of disorder in her ward may naturally be expected to be a careful observer of signs of disease.
Order, which is said to be Heaven’s first law, should be one of the first laws of ward work. Even the height of the curtains of the windows add to or detract from the appearance of the ward. The beds should be an equal distance apart and in a straight line. The head of the bed should never be used as a drying-place for wash cloths or towels, nor as a hook on which to hang bath robes and wrappers.