For a complete description of the mechanical movements and the machinery employed in the treatment of diseases at the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute, the reader is referred to the appendix to this work.
CHAPTER IV.
HYGIENIC TREATMENT OF THE SICK.
There are two essentials requisite to the successful treatment of the sick: (1.) Medical skill; (2.) Good nursing. The former is necessary in order that the condition of the patient be fully understood, and the proper means be employed to effect his recovery. The latter is essential, in order that all influences favoring the production and development of disease may be removed, the tendencies to restoration be promoted by every possible means, and the directions of the physician be properly observed.
Success in the treatment of the sick requires good nursing. Without it, the most skillful physicians fail to effect a cure; with it, the most unqualified may succeed. If certain hygienic agencies are essential to the maintenance of health, how much more necessary it is that they be employed in sickness! If certain conditions cause disease, how great the necessity is that such conditions be obviated and hygienic ones substituted!
Notwithstanding the importance of good nursing, in the rural districts it is frequently difficult to find a professional nurse, or, if one can be obtained, it is often impossible for the invalid to procure such services, on account of the expense which must necessarily be incurred. Hence, this office usually devolves upon some relative who is considered to be the best qualified for the position; or, as is often the case, necessity demands that the patient be left to a change of nurses. A woman is generally selected for this important position. Her soft hand and soothing voice, her kindly, sympathetic, and provident nature, together with her scrupulous cleanliness, render her man's equal, if not his superior, in the capacity of nurse. There are circumstances, however, in which the services of a man are indispensable; hence the necessity that all should be qualified to care for the sick.
A nurse should be attentive to the requirements of physician and patient, for she sustains an intimate relation to both. She should observe the directions of the physician, and faithfully perform them. She should note all the symptoms of the patient, and do everything in her power to promote comfort and recovery. She should anticipate the wishes, and not cause the patient to ask for everything which is desired. So far as practicable, let the wishes be gratified. The senses of the sick often become morbidly acute, and those things which in health would pass unnoticed, in sickness are so magnified as to occasion annoyance and vexation. Sick persons are not all alike, and the peculiarities of each must be studied separately. The nurse must be kind, but firm, and not yield to such whims of the patient as may be detrimental to recovery; neither must she arouse dislike or anger by opposition, but endeavor to win the patient from all delusions. The feelings of the patient should never be trifled with, for idealities become realities.
The nurse should possess an inexhaustible store of patience. Disease affects the mind of the patient and fills it with strange delusions. The sick are often querulous, fretful, and unreasonable, and should be treated with kindness, forbearance, and sympathy. The nurse should always be cheerful, look on the bright side of every circumstance, animate them with encouragement, and inspire them with hope. Hope is one of the best of tonics. It stimulates the flagging, vital energies, and imparts new life to the weak and exhausted forces. Gloom, sadness, and despondency depress the vital forces and lead to death. We have seen patients rapidly sinking, who had given up all hope, and were quietly awaiting the coming of death, snatched, as it were, from its grasp, and restored to health, by words of cheer and encouragement.