Student Nurse Reflective Journal

  What I learned about the time period being studied What I learned from my literature review and historical discussion was:  Nursing students got government bursaries (monthly salary). They’re outfits were dresses and aprons and a nurse hat., but some weren’t wearing the hat. On the first day of nursing school you go straight to working what we would consider clinical for 2 weeks until lectures started. They had to live in nurses’ residence for the first year.    Nurses would help prepare and serve meals. Medications  weren’t individually dispensed. They were out on a trolley. There were no computers or electronic records.  Recording vitals signs required using a three colored pen to reflect the three different shifts. You had to use a mercury thermometer, pin watch for counting respirations and heart rate, manual BP. IV fluids were in glass bottles. IF you needed to control the speed of an infusion, you had to count the drops in a minute. I learned from my classmates that:  Nursing r

 1. What I learned From my group mates, I learned that they didn’t like to hire married nurses. I thought that was crazy! Also, I learned that they didn’t want you to get married during nursing school either. I also learned that nurses had many responsibilities and were super busy because of the war. Form my article, I learned that penicillin started to be used to treat infection. I also learned that nurses wore dresses and aprons in this time period. I wish we still did that! My article  explains that there was a lot of devastation due to bombings inflicted by Germany. Also, the bombing on Pearl Harbor happened in 1941. All this caused nurses to be desperately needed. Higher starting salaries for nurses started. “Nursing was moving towards true career status, rather than being a vocation.” Assistant nurses gained recognition in 1943.  There was a shortage of nurses during the 40’s. This was also the year that penicillin had been recognized in treating infections. In 1949, the Nurses A

 1. What I learned about the time period being studied From the discussion with my teammates, I learned that sometimes unfortunate events are a catalyst for change and improvement. This idea came from learning that the Great Depression and the wars going on are what helped nursing progress and become a more respected profession. At least there is some good that can come from bad/unfortunate circumstances.  Another thing I learned is about private duty nurses. These were like home health nurses as we know them today. When the Great Depression started and there was a war, it negatively impacted these people’s jobs. This is because people could no longer afford to have nurses come to their homes, as this was more expensive than going to be treated at the hospital.  From my literature search, I learned about major event in nursing during this time period like nurses receiving relative rank, veterans bureau nursing service was established, the committee on the grading of nursing school begi

What I learned about the time period being studied. This was a very progressive time period. The article I read was a timeline of events that happened in each of the years of the time being studied this week. There were many organizations and associations that were established for nursing. I learned from my teammates that this time period introduced school nursing, which started out as an experiment. I also learned that African Americans were able to become nurses, but discrimination still existed. How I will utilize the information learned in my nursing practice. I’ve heard about the organizations that were created and still continue today. I think it would be good for me to join the American nurses association and get involved. We learned about school nursing this week, and I always considered becoming a school nurse. I think they are really important! My personal feelings about the time period covered. I feel like a lot was going on during this time period. I much was done to profes