The nursing and care of the nervous and the insane / By Charles K. Mills.

  • Mills, Charles K. (Charles Karsner), 1845-1931.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nursing and care of the nervous and the insane / By Charles K. Mills. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Having detailed some of the qualities and qualifi- cations of a good nurse, let me picture some of the types of faulty nurses,—at least so far as the care of nervous patients is concerned; some of thern faulty for any form of nursing. There is the nurse who talks too much. For some nervous patients, par- ticularly for those who are just commencing a long course of treatment by rest and seclusion, too much talking on the part of the nurse is a serious drawback. With the constitutionally talkative nurse it is worse than useless to attempt to correct the habit. She will talk in season and out of season, and is usually unable to curb this propensity even in the presence of the physician ; indeed, she sometimes seems to exhibit it as one of her greatest acquirements. On the other hand, I occasionally meet with a nurse who does not talk enough ; or who never says anything when she does open her mouth; that is, an individual constitutionally wanting in conversational powers. Either of these extremes is bad. It is well that a nurse for nervous patients should talk sensibly, intelligently, and with judgment. An abomination of abominations is the habit which some nurses have of informing the doctor as to the ex- act nature of the patient's disease ; telling him that the case is one of hysteria ; whispering an opinion as to its treatment in a mysterious manner ; or boasting of some wonderful discovery witli reference to the patient. The too familiar nurse is also an abomination. Thrown closely in contact for weeks, and it may be for months, it is natural that a patient isolated from family