Reflective Journal Week 11 - Nursing Across the Ages

 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 roles vary from simply doing a bed bath to complete assessments. Some nurse’s roles were to maintain the safety of the patient as much as they could, especially since there were no computers to keep the patient’s information safe. Safety while using IV fluids was risky. IV fluids came in a glass bottle. The nurse administered it by counting the drops per minute and adjusting the rate until the desired amount of drops was flowing per minute. Central venous pressure was measured with water manometers. If oxygen was needed, nurses had to bring their patients to an oxygen concentrator's room, since rooms didn’t have oxygen built into the room like they do now. I also learned that there was a nursing shortage during this time period. Some suggestions were made to reduce the shortage. Some of their recommendations included student recruitment and educational pathways, career development and retention, the restructuring of nursing services, effective utilization of nursing personnel, data collection and analysis requirements, use of information systems and related technology in nursing.

How I will utilize the information learned in my nursing practice

I will utilize the information I learned by taking advantage of the technology we have now. Taking vitals seem like a breeze compared to what they had to do to take vitals. I will make sure to utilize our computer charting systems to chart good, necessary data to help protect me and the patient. Although we have many technologies to help us, I will make sure to put just as much thought into the things I do for patients as the nurses in this time period had to. I won’t rely on it and make sure to double check, especially my meds.

My personal feelings about the time period being covered

I am just amazed at how much the nurses had to do and how they managed without the technology we have today. I have much respect for these nurses. I’m kind of jealous that nursing students got paid. However, they probably deserve it more than us, because they worked a lot more hours and did more work it seems. I’m thankful for all the technology we have today. I’m thankful for the advances that make my job easier and patients safer.