Bacteriology For Nurses

PREFACE IN arranging these chapters on bacteriology for the use of pupil nurses, no attempt has been made to do more than to endeavor to bring the essentials of an enormous subject into a practical arrangement, which will serve to introduce young nurses to one of the most important phases of nursing viz., the prevention of infection. The suggested schedule for laboratory work was compiled from several outlines which are in use in different schools for nurses, the courses varying from five exercises of one hour each, to twenty exercises of two hours each one seemingly inade- more time than is quate and the other requiring feasible in the majority of schools. This work should not be attempted in the classroom, but should be done in a well-equipped laboratory under the direction of a bacteriologist. The class work may easily be done by the nurse teachers, but they should not attempt the laboratory exercises except after extended bacteriological work. The schedule should not be regarded as inflex- ible, as numerous opportunities for the observation of material from well-known cases in the wards will arise, and their use serve to impress more strongly upon the pupils the manifestations of particular infections. Neither should the arrangement of the chapters be immovable the laboratory exercises and class work should go hand in hand. SCHEDULE FOR TWELVE LABORATORY EXERCISES OF TWO-HOUR PERIODS Exercise I. Washing, plugging, and sterilizing glassware. Exercise II. Making of media. Exercise III. Technique of Inoculation of media. Preparation of plates. Hanging drop. Use of microscope. Exercise IV. Making and microscopical examination of stained preparations. Exercise V. Observation of bacilliPathogenic Spore-bearing. B. subtilis. B. chromogenic, etc. B. coli communis. B. typhosus. B, tuberculosis. B. diphtheria. Demonstration of Widals test. Exercise VI. Observation of pathogenic micrococci Staphylococci. Streptococci. Pneumococcus. Gonococcus. Spirilla S. cholerce. Treponema pallidum. Exercise VII. Demonstration of anaerobic cultures. Exercise VIII. Bacteriological examination of water from five or six sources and after sterilization. X SCHEDULE Exercise IX. Examination of air and dust from hospital wards, dwellings, and the street. Exercise X. Examination of cultures from hands, and from rubber gloves before and after sterilization. Exercise XI. Examination of milk from the hospital supply, from outside sources, and after pasteurization. Exercise XII. Examination of cultures from surgical dressings and suture material. FOR NURSES REFERENCE LIBRARY Manual of Bacteriology, by Robert Muir, M.A., M.D., F.R.C.P. Ed., and James Ritchie, M.A., M.D., B.Sc. Macmillan. Practical Bacteriology, by Edwin O. Jordan, Ph.D. Saunders. Hygieneof Transmissible Diseases, by A. C. Abbott, M.D. Saunders. A Laboratory Guide in Bacteriology, by Paul G. Heinemann, Sc.B. University of Chicago Press. Sources and Modes of Infection, by Charles V. Chapin, M.U., Sc.D. John Wiley and Sons. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE TEACHERS PREFACE vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ...