When comparing a surgeon today with a surgeon of Nightingale's time, which of the following best describes the primary difference in how they would operate on a patient?
a. Current physicians have better surgical equipment (tools).
b. Current physicians have nursing support staff in the operating room.
c. Current physicians would carefully scrub between cases.
d. Current physicians would prescribe antibiotics in the operating room to avoid possible infections.
ANS: C
Physicians in Nightingale's time believed in spontaneous generation, which stated that disease organisms grew from nothing, and were unaware of how diseases spread. Consequently, they did not use sanitary operating procedures, including scrubbing between cases. The different surgical equipment, nursing support, and use of antibiotics do not describe the primary difference.
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