[Gsr]

Waterbed​

I remember when I was nursing in the seventies we had one or two waterbeds on most wards. This was in a public hospital and we had a lot of older patients waiting for nursing home care, as well as surgical patients confined to bed after their surgeries. Putting them on waterbeds was supposed to help with pressure areas and mean less need to rotate them. It was a bit funny trying to look after some of them as they kept moving about every time us nurses tried to do observations, dressings, bed baths etc. it was a wonder some didn’t get seasick the beds wobbled about that much. We had to be careful when treating patients or making the beds that we didn’t lean in to far and fall onto the bed as it was hard work getting back off the moving mattress. Sometimes we climbed on the beds when empty as a bit of a lark and to have a bit of fun.