FEATURES OF GENERAL PATIENT CARE 19

on the far side of the X-ray table have to stretch across it to reach the
patient, and they are very poorly placed to exert their most force with
out strain to themselves. It takes six people acting with partial efficiency,
instead of three acting with their forces properly applied.
It is frequently necessary to turn patients on the X-ray table on to one
side for projection. If the patient is unable to help, it is again
a lateral

important to see that this is done in the proper way, so that both staff and
patient are involved in the least expenditure of effort.
Since the X-ray table is not very wide it is wise to begin by pulling the
patient from the centre of the table nearer to the edge towards which he
is not going to turn. He is less likely then to find that as he turns he rolls
perilously close to the table edge on the side towards which he is turning.
The turning procedure is begun by alteration in the position of the
patient's limbs. If he is to be turned on to his left side, his left arm is
brought away from his body, abducted at the shoulder. The right leg is
brought across the trunk, flexed at hip and knee, and the right arm
brought forward across the chest. This positioning of the limbs tilts the
of the patient's turn.
trunk in the direction
The radiographer who will do most of the work of turning the patient

(and can in fact act unaided) then goes round the X-ray table to the patient's
left side and puts both hands well under the patient, one under the
shoulders and one under the pelvis. This is easy to do as the patient's body
is already tilted by the weight of the limbs.
It is now possible smoothly and gently to roll the patient on to his left
side by the radiographer leaning backwards and pressing with thighs and
knees against the X-ray table. Some assistance can be given by another
radiographer standing on the other side of the X-ray table, but it will
probably not be necessary unless the patient is entirely a dead weight. A
patient can be turned from the supine position on to his right side in a
similar manner with the above procedure reversed as to side.
In moving and turning patients, in picking them up and in putting
them down, and in assisting them to move themselves, it is important
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always to be as smooth and as gentle as possible.

very unpleasant for patient who being lifted on to the X-ray table to
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be put down upon too quickly. There no 'give' in an uncovered X-ray

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table that the patient can appreciate, and he going to think hard enough
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without making his first encounter with the surface sudden one. When
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ever the X-ray examination likely to be prolonged in time, kind

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ness to the patient to make the table softer bed by the use of the thin
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radiolucent mattresses which are available.