A reference hand-book for nursesBeck, Amanda K. (Amanda Kathryn)
Science
A reference hand-book for nurses
Beck, Amanda K. (Amanda Kathryn)
Nursing
=Joint Movements.=—Under this procedure we may mention flexion,
extension, abduction, adduction, pronation, supination, circumduction,
and stretching. The movements may be passive or resistive. In passive
movements the exercise is almost entirely confined to the joint, the
patient offering no muscular resistance. With the resistive movements
a certain degree of muscular activity is enforced by the patient,
thus not only exercising the joints, but the muscles connected with
the joints. The physiologic effect of joint movements is to markedly
stimulate all the parts about the joint, and is indicated in various
joint disorders which may have resulted in the lessening of the normal
movements of the part, as in rheumatism, gout, chronic synovitis, and
the stiffness that follows immobilization of the joint in the treatment
of sprains, fractures, etc. Care should be exercised in the beginning
not to use too much force in the manipulation, otherwise the existing
condition may be aggravated, and more harm result than good. Increased
force may be exercised with each treatment, always bearing in mind the
necessities of each case.
ELECTRICITY.
BY DR. JAMES C. GILL,
Rush Medical College, Chicago, Ill.
Electricity is a useful and important therapeutic agent, and an
understanding of its effect when applied to the human body is as
essential as a knowledge of any other therapeutic measure. Too often
the therapeutic use of electricity is committed to those having very
little knowledge of it, and consequently good results are not obtained.
It is a great mistake to allow or advise patients to use electricity
themselves; no greater mistake would be made or more harmful results
follow if they were advised to go to the drug store, and help
themselves to any drugs they might choose. Electricity should be
administered by a physician, or under the directions of a physician by
a nurse who has been thoroughly taught its use.
In medicine we have usually considered three different forms of
electricity: First, Galvanism or Chemical Electricity; Second, Faradism
or Induced Electricity; Third, Franklinic or Static Electricity. Now,
we add a fourth and a very important one—namely, _X_-ray. A nurse
should have a general knowledge of these different manifestations of
electricity and their effect when applied to the body.
In electricity we have units of measurements as we do in weights
and measures. For instance, the force that drives the current of
electricity along, as we might express it, is called the electromotive
force, and its unit of measurement is a volt. The resistance which
the current must overcome is measured in ohms, and the strength of
the current is measured in amperes, or, as we measure it in medical
electricity, the thousandth part of an ampere, a milliampere.
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