Home nursing / by E. Margery Homersham.

  • Homersham, E. Margery.
Date:
[1893]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Home nursing / by E. Margery Homersham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/102 (page 5)
    THE SICK-ROOM. must be most carefully regulated, if not altogether prevented; but such times, even in winter, are few and far between. In most houses open windows are now the rule, not the exception. “ Doors are made to shut, windows to open,” is the golden rule of ventila¬ tion. A costless ventilator may be provided by fitting below the bottom sash of the window a piece of wood six inches wide, so shaped as to fill the whole space between the frame. The bottom sash is raised for the insertion of the wood, then lowered until they come in contact. The two sashes overlap each other in the middle of the window and allow free passage of air from outside upwards into the room. There is no appreciable draught from this form of ventilator. Admittance of air, when the atmosphere is keen or foggy, may be advantageously controlled by filtration through some woollen material. Thus when a window is open at the top a piece of flannel may be nailed over the aperture. In fine weather it is a good plan to cover the patient’s head and body with an extra blanket, and throw the window wide open for a few minutes three or four times a day. Care must be taken not to remove the extra covering till the air of the room has regained its normal temperature. Every sick-room should be provided with an ordinary thermometer, hung on the head of the bed, or on a level with and as close to the patient’s head as can be conveniently arranged. From 6o° to 70° Fahr. is the usual tem¬ perature ordered for the sick-room, and a good nurse will endeavour to avoid more than one or two degrees of variation in the twenty-four hours. The Bed should be placed between the door and the fireplace or towards the middle of the room. The foot should never be towards the window, and if the