What is really needed is a little executive ability. As Florence
Nightingale said:

"It is impossible in a book to teach a person in charge of
the sick how to _manage_, as it is to teach her how to
nurse. Circumstances must vary with each different case.
But it is possible to press upon her to think for herself.
Now what does happen during my absence? I am obliged to be
away on Tuesday. But fresh air, or punctuality is not less
important to my patient on Tuesday than it was on Monday.
Or: At 10 p.m. I am never with my patient; but quiet is of
no less consequence to him at 10 than it was at 5 minutes
to 10. Curious as it may seem, this very obvious
consideration occurs comparatively to few, or, if it does
occur, it is only to cause the devoted friend or nurse to
be absent fewer hours, or even fewer minutes from her
patient--not to arrange so as that no minute and no hour
shall be for her patient without the essentials of her
nursing."--(Notes on Nursing.)

It is exceedingly difficult to care for members of one's own family or
to be cared for by them. Too much or too little is almost invariably
expected by one person or the other, and where great affection is
involved not only is the strain increased on both sides, but often harm
results from too great unselfishness on either side or both. But
sometimes the reverse is true, and then one should remember that normal
behavior may be impossible for the sick. During weakness and pain,
irritability and unreasonableness are as characteristic as other
symptoms, and it is as foolish to demand a normal mental state from a
sick person as it would be to demand a normal temperature. For a
cheerful, reasonable, and unselfish patient--and there are surprisingly
many--one should be devoutly thankful, but patience and pity should be
given no less to those whose tortured nerves cause suffering to others
as well as to themselves.

Every woman who cares for the sick should remember that she is the
patient's chief if not his only link with the normal world, and that his
plight is pitiful indeed if she is complaining or irritable or
unwilling. Anyone who cares for the sick should remember also that she
is necessarily in a most intimate relation with the patient, and that
such enforced intimacy calls for extra consideration on her part, and
for the most scrupulous respect for confidential matte