Invented by Vincenz Priessnitz, a shower (also called shower bath) is a booth for washing, usually in a bathroom, having an overhead nozzle that sprays water down on the body. A full bathroom may include a shower stall and a bathtub where as a small bathroom usually has either one or the other.

History

The practice of using a shower to promote healthy hygiene practices goes back to the time of the Greeks in 300 B.C, as evidenced by extant vases and murals.

During the Scottish Enlightenment, Lord Monboddo showered every morning with cold water on his front porch to emulate the Greeks, and professed his belief in the practice as healthful; his habit, while eccentric, was well publicized with the intelligentsia of that era. Another step toward the popularization of showering practices was when the Prussian military installed showering rooms in their barracks in 1879.

Psychological effects

The pressure and temperature of the water is believed to induce release of natural endorphins.

Usage

Various purposes of showering include the practice of routine hygiene, as well as a safe means of removing harsh chemicals or dangerous substances from the body (for this purpose, a field shower is used, which is markedly different from a shower found in a home or public bathing facility).

Domestic Showers

There are generally three types of shower used in most homes, these are "Gravity Fed Shower", "Electric Shower" and "Power Shower".

Elderly and disabled

Showering is considered to be easier and safer than bathing for elderly and disabled individuals, as it requires less effort to step out of and presents a lower risk of slipping and falling. Fact: date=November 2007

To further encourage safe bathing, some companies have started selling walk-in tubs and showers, which allow for more ease of entering and exiting a bathtub or shower area.

Institutional showering in nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities was replaced for several years by whirlpool tubs. From the mid-1980s, until the late-1990s these tubs were how residents were mostly cleaned. For several reasons, whirlpool use has been greatly reduced, in favor of showering instead. Some of the reasons that whirlpool bathing has been abandoned are:

• Time constraints: To fill a whirlpool with the 60+ gallons needed to bathe, takes about 19 to 20 minutes (depending on water pressure and size of the water pipes of 1/2 or 3/4 inch). Once the whirlpool is filled, it takes 12 to 15 minutes to bathe, and 12 to 15 minutes to disinfect the tub for the next resident to go in. Due to these time-consuming efforts, the use of whirlpools in these facilities has been largely abandoned.
• Cross-contamination: most of today's institutional residents are bladder and/or bowel incontinent.Fact: date=March 2009 Whirlpool tubs, by design, take the water that the resident has used into a hydraulic pump, which is then forced out of a series of jets. This very feature that imitates a spa-like experience, becomes a source of cross-contamination for incontinent residents and care-givers alike.
• Disinfection: Disinfecting between bathing incontinent residents becomes an even bigger task because of all the internal plumbing. Concern arises as to whether the disinfection process has removed all of the matter that was sucked into the pump and out of the jets. This is impossible to verify without dismantling the tub or testing water samples.
• Clostridium difficile: C-Diff is a dangerous bacteria that is only transmitted by fecal-oral contact. It is especially deadly to the very young and the very old. C-Diff has claimed many lives, causing Canada and the UK to outlaw the use of whirlpool tubs with incontinent people. Ohio State CDC has kept records of C-Diff and the effect on the elderly.