Reference no: EM133587473

Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing.

Section 11

Personal cleanliness.

In almost all diseases, the function of the skin is more or less disordered, and in many most important diseases, nature relieves herself almost entirely by the skin. This is particularly the case with children, but the excretion which comes from the skin is left there unless removed by washing or by the clothes. Every nurse should keep this fact constantly in mind, for, if she allow her sick to remain unwashed while their clothing to remain on them after being saturated with perspiration or other excretion, she is interfering injuriously with the natural processes of health just as effectually as if she were to give the patient a dose of slow poison by the mouth. Poisoning by the skin is no less certain than poisoning by the mouth, only it is slower in its operation. The amount of relief and comfort experienced by sick after the skin has been carefully washed and dried is one of the commonest observations made at a sickbed, but it must not be forgotten that the comfort and relief so obtained, or not all, are in fact nothing more than a sign that the vital powers have been relieved by removing something that was oppressing them. The nurse therefore must never put off attending to the personal cleanliness of her patient under the plea that all that is to be gained is a little relief, which can be quite as well given later. In all well-regulated hospitals, this ought to be and generally is attended to but it is very generally neglected with private sec. Just as it is necessary to renew the air around a sick person frequently to carry off morbid effluvia from the lungs and skin by maintaining free ventilation, so is it necessary to keep the pores of the skin free from all obstructing excretions. The object, both of ventilation and of skin cleanliness is pretty much the same, to with removing noxious matter from the system as rapidly as possible. Care should be taken in all these operations of sponging washing, and cleansing the skin not to expose too great a surface at once so as to check the perspiration, which would renew the evil in another form. The various ways of washing the sick need not here be specified, the less so as the doctors ought to say which is to be used. In several forms of diarrhea, dysentery, etc., where the skin is hard and harsh, the relief afforded by washing with a great deal of soft soap is incalculable. In other cases, sponging with tepid soap and water, then with tepid water and drying with a hot towel will be ordered. Every nurse ought to be careful to wash her hands very frequently during the day; if her face too so much the better. One word as to cleanliness merely as cleanliness. Compare the dirtiness of the water in which you have washed when it is cold without soap, cold with soap hot with soap. You will find the first has hardly removed any dirt at all, the second a little more, the third a great deal more, but hold your hand over a cup of hot water for a minute or two, and then, by merely rubbing with the finger you will bring off flakes of dirt or dirty skin. After a vapor bath you may peel your whole self clean in this way. What I mean is that, by simply washing or sponging with water, you do not really clean your skin. Take a rough towel, dip one corner in very hot water, if little spirit be added to it it will be more effectual, and then rub as if you are rubbing the towel into your skin with your fingers. The black flakes which will come off will convince you that you were not clean before. However much soap water you have used, these flakes are what require removing, and you can really keep yourself cleaner with a tumbler of hot water and a rough towel and rubbing than with a whole apparatus of bath and soap and sponge without rubbing. It is quite nonsense to say that anybody need be dirty. patients have been kept clean by these means on a long voyage, when a basin full of water could not be afforded and when they could not be moved out of their berths, as if all the appurtenances of home had been at hand-washing however with a large quantity of water has quite other effects than those of mere cleanliness. The skin absorbs the water and becomes softer are more pespirable. To wash with soap and soft water is therefore desirable from other points of view than that of cleanliness.

Questions:

1. Explain five things you learned, four things that made you go "wow", and three question you still have.

2. How do Florence Nightingale's thoughts from over 150 years ago remain relevant today?