Supplies should always be given out freely, and the patient should not feel that he is put under any obligation by accepting them. They are intended for his personal use and convenience, and he should be made to realize this. Otherwise, some patients may hesitate to accept all that they really need. If a patient needs four or five fillers a day, he should unquestionably have them—otherwise he may practise small economies which will mean unnecessary exposure for his family. On the other hand, the nurse must see that the supplies are used for the purpose intended—we have sometimes known handkerchiefs used as a decoration for kitchen shelves, simply because the nurse had given away far more than was necessary. =Nursing Supplies.= In addition to the prophylactic supplies, the bag also contains a number of articles used in caring for bed-ridden or very ill cases. Naturally, these articles are not given to the patients, but are used from case to case, as necessity arises. They include a bottle of alcohol, boracic ointment, talcum powder, gauze, adhesive strapping, absorbent cotton, and a thermometer. The nurse should always carry an apron, to be worn when doing any nursing work. The most common dressing is that of bedsores; many patients with pleurisy have to be strapped; others have drainage tubes, which must be taken out and cleaned. These extensive dressings are not those which the nurse should properly be required to attend to, since a patient ill enough to require an extensive dressing, is a patient who should be sent to a hospital. Hospital accommodation, however, is unfortunately very limited, and the nurse is often obliged to do these dressings while waiting for a vacancy to occur. It is no part of the programme to keep these advanced cases at home rather than in an institution; on the contrary, the nurse must make every effort to get them away—but until this can be accomplished, it is her duty to care for them at home. CHAPTER V Records and Reports—The Patient’s Chart—Closing the Chart—The Card Index—Nurse’s Daily Report Sheet—Weekly and Monthly Reports—Examination of Charts. =Records and Reports.= Every association, whether it be private or municipal, supporting one nurse or fifty, should keep careful records concerning its patients, and concerning its nurses’ work. These two sets of records should dovetail and form a cross file; by looking at the patient’s chart, one should be able to note the condition of each individual case, and how often and on what dates he was visited. By looking at the nurse’s record, one should be able to know exactly how she had employed every moment of her day, and to see the number of patients she had visited during the course of it. The patients’ charts account for the patients—the nurse’s daily report accounts for her work among them.