Bed-Making for the Sick
The bed should be the most comfortable obtainable, or the most comfortable already in the home. The small bed (half-size or three-quarter size) is much better than the full-size bed. If it is too low it may be elevated on blocks. It should be placed so that it is easily accessible from both sides and the foot and so that it does not face the light. The mattress, pillows and bedding will usually depend on what is available, but so far as possible should be of the best quality, as nothing is too good for patient. The coverings should be of the lightest material that is sufficiently warm. White rubber sheets are preferable to colored, and may be single or double-faced. However, oilcloth and even newspapers may be used as substitutes. Whatever material is used is placed between the lower and the draw sheet, which latter is used for additional protection of the bed. An ordinary sheet may be folded through the middle crosswise for this draw sheet. It should come several inches above and below the rubber sheet and should be wide enough to come under the lower edge of the pillow.
It should not be necessary to give directions for the ordi¬nary making of beds. Those who will be called upon to act as nurses will have their own methods and it is likely that these will be satisfactory, even if they should fall considerably below the standards of hospitals and trained nurses. But to make a bed with a patient in it is a difficult procedure without special knowledge. Needless to say, it should be managed so as to cause the least possible fatigue and discomfort to the patient.
For convalescents and mildly sick persons the bedding may be changed twice a week, on stated days, the upper sheet tak¬ing the place of the lower and a fresh upper one being put on. In acute illness, with much fever and a serious outlook, it will be better not to disturb the patient too often to change the bed unless this can be done adroitly, in which case daily changes may be made. As a matter of routine, the bed of any patient confined to it constantly should be made each night and morn¬ing and freshened in the middle of the day if possible. Through the day and the night the bed should be smoothed frequently, and the pillow turned and “plumped.”