WEBWISE Home Hygiene and Health The International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene is a registered UK charity set up in 1997 to promote health and wellbeing through improved hygiene, infection prevention and control in home and everyday settings. Its website, Home Hygiene and Health, is a comprehensive resource of scientific reviews and the latest thinking on hygiene-related diseases. Its library of scientific publications provides links to peer-reviewed articles on disease incidence, infection transmission, hygiene procedures, promoting behaviour change and microbial resistance. There is a wealth of information on the ‘hygiene hypothesis’, originally postulated in 1989, which proposed that a lack of exposure to infectious agents in early childhood could explain rising levels of allergic diseases. The resources section of the site links to guidelines, training and educational resources on the principles and practice of home hygiene. There are factsheets and advice on specific diseases, including Ebola virus disease and how to manage the risks. The section on caring for infected and vulnerable people at home is a key resource, and there are links to information on other issues such as hand hygiene, clinical waste, home laundering, HIV/AIDS and the care of patients with cancer. You can register on the site and sign up for newsletters on hygiene, research publications and promotional and educational materials. Roger Evans is assistant editor, Nursing Standard www.ifh-homehygiene.org See www.nursing-standard.co.uk for previous website reviews
Reviews
TV :: radio :: books :: websites :: apps The Hospital in the Oatfield – The Art of Nursing in the First World War ★★★★★
This interesting, beautifully illustrated book concentrates on the appalling conditions that nurses endured while caring for wounded and dying soldiers. A group of nurses, led by Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland, worked and lived in tents on the front line in France. The awnings came from seafront cafés, and gave colour to an otherwise drab environment. There were no antibiotics, so wounds were treated using chlorine
wound-irrigation processes developed by the nursing staff. The boundaries between medical and nursing care were often blurred. The effects of chlorine gas as a weapon of war were being encountered for the first time. It burned the soldiers’ air passages and affected the eyes and ears. Chemical burns on exposed flesh and internal organs had to be treated. Millicent, a society beauty, was a pioneering social reformer. As with Florence Nightingale, she was often in conflict with the army medical establishment. Her interest in reform sat uneasily with some who saw her as an embarrassment to both her class and her gender.
Natasha McEnroe and Tig Thomas (Eds) | Florence Nightingale Museum | 106pp | £15.99 ISBN: 978 1 9072 2223 8 Reviewed by Mary Spinks CBE, former director of the Florence Nightingale Foundation
The Fateful Year – England 1914 ★★★★ Some historical notions have become deeply embedded in our national consciousness. The events to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the first world war have rekindled an idea of a Britain enjoying unrivalled prosperity and contentment, bathed in glorious sunshine before being plunged into the tragedy of international conflict on an industrial scale. In this engaging and surprising book, the Florence Nightingale biographer Mark Bostridge shows that this idyllic picture of 1914 is far from the truth. Civil war loomed in Ireland, industrial unrest was widespread and militant suffragettes were waging their campaign for the vote.
Once war was declared, fighting in Ireland was postponed and the suffragettes announced a truce until the crisis was over. One young woman in Devon went to her local hospital to offer her services as a nurse, only to be turned away because, as she was told, ‘they were frightfully busy with the premature babies caused by the shock of war’. As the situation became clearer, nursing provided a valuable outlet for national service. Aristocratic women established their own hospitals in France, while on the home front in Britain nursing opened up new opportunities for women from all backgrounds. One aspect of our view of 1914 does seem to be correct. Sir Edward Grey really did say: ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe: we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.’
Mark Bostridge | Penguin Books | 432pp | £9.99 | ISBN: 978 0 6709 1922 2 Reviewed by John Adams, temporary lecturer, Anglia Ruskin University, Peterborough
Key Excellent ★★★★★
Very good ★★★★ Good ★★★ Average ★★ Poor ★
32 september :: volRCNi.com 29 no 1 ::by2014 STANDARD Downloaded3from ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 25, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Reviews
TV :: radio :: books :: websites :: apps The Hospital in the Oatfield – The Art of Nursing in the First World War ★★★★★
This interesting, beautifully illustrated book concentrates on the appalling conditions that nurses endured while caring for wounded and dying soldiers. A group of nurses, led by Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland, worked and lived in tents on the front line in France. The awnings came from seafront cafés, and gave colour to an otherwise drab environment. There were no antibiotics, so wounds were treated using chlorine
wound-irrigation processes developed by the nursing staff. The boundaries between medical and nursing care were often blurred. The effects of chlorine gas as a weapon of war were being encountered for the first time. It burned the soldiers’ air passages and affected the eyes and ears. Chemical burns on exposed flesh and internal organs had to be treated. Millicent, a society beauty, was a pioneering social reformer. As with Florence Nightingale, she was often in conflict with the army medical establishment. Her interest in reform sat uneasily with some who saw her as an embarrassment to both her class and her gender.
Natasha McEnroe and Tig Thomas (Eds) | Florence Nightingale Museum | 106pp | £15.99 ISBN: 978 1 9072 2223 8 Reviewed by Mary Spinks CBE, former director of the Florence Nightingale Foundation
The Fateful Year – England 1914 ★★★★ Some historical notions have become deeply embedded in our national consciousness. The events to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the first world war have rekindled an idea of a Britain enjoying unrivalled prosperity and contentment, bathed in glorious sunshine before being plunged into the tragedy of international conflict on an industrial scale. In this engaging and surprising book, the Florence Nightingale biographer Mark Bostridge shows that this idyllic picture of 1914 is far from the truth. Civil war loomed in Ireland, industrial unrest was widespread and militant suffragettes were waging their campaign for the vote.
Once war was declared, fighting in Ireland was postponed and the suffragettes announced a truce until the crisis was over. One young woman in Devon went to her local hospital to offer her services as a nurse, only to be turned away because, as she was told, ‘they were frightfully busy with the premature babies caused by the shock of war’. As the situation became clearer, nursing provided a valuable outlet for national service. Aristocratic women established their own hospitals in France, while on the home front in Britain nursing opened up new opportunities for women from all backgrounds. One aspect of our view of 1914 does seem to be correct. Sir Edward Grey really did say: ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe: we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.’
Mark Bostridge | Penguin Books | 432pp | £9.99 | ISBN: 978 0 6709 1922 2 Reviewed by John Adams, temporary lecturer, Anglia Ruskin University, Peterborough
Key Excellent ★★★★★
Very good ★★★★ Good ★★★ Average ★★ Poor ★
32 september :: volRCNi.com 29 no 1 ::by2014 STANDARD Downloaded3from ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 25, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
