INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW
Nightingale maintained that every woman is a nurse because every woman,
at one time or another in her life, has charge of the personal health of
someone. Nightingale equated knowledge of nursing with knowledge of
sanitation. The focus of nursing knowledge was how to keep the body free
from disease or in such a condition that it could recover from disease.
According to Nightingale, nursing ought to signify the proper use of fresh air,
light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration
of diet--all at the least expense of vital power to the patient. That is, she
maintained that the purpose of nursing was to put patients in the best
condition for nature to act upon them.
13 CANONS DESCRIPTION PROCESS AND THOUGHT
The nurse must be concerned first with Assess the client’s body temperature, room
keeping the air that patients breathe as temperature, and room for fresh air (or
1. VENTILATION pure as the external air, without chilling adequate ventilation) and foul odors. Develop a
AND them. plan to keep the room airy and free of odor
WARMING while maintaining the client’s body
temperature.
There are five essential points in
Assess the surrounding environment for pure
securing the health of houses:—
air, pure water, drainage, cleanliness, and light.
Pure air.
Examples include removing garbage or
Pure water.
garments from the area, removing any standing
2. HEALTH OF Efficient drainage.
water (or ensuring that water drains away from
HOUSES Cleanliness.
the area), and ensuring that air and water are
Light.
clean and free from odor and that there is
Without these, no house can be healthy plenty of light.
and it will be unhealthy just in
proportion as they are deficient.
All the results of good nursing may be
Petty management ensures continuity of care.
negated by one defect: not knowing
3. PETTY Documentation of the plan of care and all
how to manage what you do when you
MANAGEMENT evaluation will ensure others give the same
are there and what shall be done when
care to the client in your absence
you are not there.
Unnecessary noise, or noise that creates
an expectation in the mind, is that
Assess the noise level in the client’s room and
which hurts patients. Anything that
surrounding area. Attempt to keep noise level
wakes patients suddenly out of their
4. NOISE to a minimum, and refrain from whispering
sleep will invariably put them into a
outside the door.
state of grater excitement and do them
more serious and lasting mischief than
any continuous noise, however loud.
5. VARIETY The nerves of the sick suffer from seeing Attempt to stimulate variety in the room and
the same walls, the same ceiling, the with the client. This is accomplished with cards,
same surroundings during a long flowers, pictures, books, or puzzles. Encourage
confinement to one or two rooms. The friends and relatives to engage the client in
majority of cheerful cases are to be some sort of stimulating conversation.
found among those patients who are
not confined to one room, whatever
their suffering, and the majority of
depressed cases will be seen among
those subjected to a long monotony of
objects about them.
The nurse should be conscious of Assess the diet of the client. Take note of the
patients' diets and remember how amount of food and drink ingested by the client
6. TAKING FOOD
much food each patient has had and at every meal or snack.
ought to have each day.
To watch for the opinions the patient's Continue with the assessment of the diet to
stomach gives, rather than to read include type of food and drink the client likes or
"analyses of foods," is the business of all dislikes. Attempt to ensure that the client
7. WHAT FOOD
those who have to decide what the always has some food or drink available that he
patient should eat. or she enjoys.
8. BED AND The patient should have a clean bed Assess the bed and bedding for dampness,
BEDDING every 12 hours. The bed should be wrinkles, and soiling, and check the bed for
narrow, so that the patient does not feel height. Keep the bed dry, wrinkle-free, and at
"out of humanity's reach." The bed the lowest height to ensure the client’s
should not be so high that the patient comfort.
cannot easily get in and out of it. The
bed should be in the lightest spot in the
room, preferably near a window. Pillows
should be used to support the back
below the breathing apparatus, to allow
shoulders room to fall back, and to
support the head without throwing it
forward.
With the sick, second only to their need Assess the room for adequate light. Sunlight
of fresh air is their need of light. Light, works best. Develop and implement adequate
9. LIGHT especially direct sunlight, has a purifying light in the client’s room without placing the
effect upon the air of a room. client in direct light.
The greater part of nursing consists in
preserving cleanliness. The inside air can
be kept clean only by excessive care to
Assess the room for dampness, darkness, and
10. CLEANLINESS rid rooms and their furnishings of the
dust or mildew. Keep the room free from dust,
OF ROOMS AND organic matter and dust with which they
dirt, mildew, and dampness.
WALLS become saturated. Without cleanliness,
you cannot have all the effects of
ventilation; without ventilation, you can
have no thorough cleanliness.
11. PERSONAL Nurses should always remember that if Attempt to keep the client dry and clean at all
CLEANLINESS they allow patients to remain unwashed times. Frequent assessment of the client’s skin
or to remain in clothing saturated with
perspiration or other excretion, they are
interfering injuriously with the natural is needed to maintain adequate skin moisture.
processes of health just as much as if
they were to give their patients a dose
of slow poison.
There is scarcely a greater worry which
invalids have to endure than the
Avoid talking without reason or giving advice
incurable hopes of their friends. All
12. CHATTERING that is without fact. Continue to talk to the
friends, visitors, and attendants of the
HOPES AND client as a person, and continue to stimulate
sick should avoid the practice of
ADVICES the client’s mind. Avoid personal talk.
attempting to cheer the sick by making
light of their danger and by exaggerating
their probabilities of recovery.
The most important practical lesson
Observe everything about your client. Record
nurses can learn is what to observe,
all observations. Observations should be factual
how to observe, which symptoms
13. OBSERVATION and not merely opinions. Continue to observe
indicate improvement, which indicate
OF THE SICK the client’s surrounding environment, and
the reverse, which are important, which
make alterations in the plan of care when
are not, and which are the evidence of
needed.
neglect and what kind of neglect.
