One of my favorite things about allnurses is reading the posted "Stories" of how things used to be. I am amazed to learn about nursing in the past, and how things are different now.
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I was blown away to find out student nurses could not be married during school, when one of my instructors went to a Public Charity Hospital based Diploma Nursing Program.
I loved hearing about having to sterilize everything, and how the student nurses practically ran the hospital. ("A Physician would find a Nurse, begin a Hospital, . . .and start a Nursing School." -Straight out of one of my old Nursing School Text books."
How mental institutions have changed soooooooo dramatically just over the last 50 years!
How cancer was once an instant death sentence.
That Physicians sometimes slept at the bedside of a really sick patient, . . .And made housecalls!!!!
How hospitals were once basically an inpatient hospice before the advent of medicinal treatments such as antibiotics/antivirals.
That one of my instructors from the ADN program worked 7 days a week for $1 per shift her whole first year! (was pinned in 1957).
How one of my professors broke down in tears when a patient with a radio told her that JFK had been shot in Dallas, TX.
How one nurse had every child she had drafted in WWII, so she went as a "Civilian" Nurse to the Corps, and worked at Westpoint post-wartime.
Please add what you know about Nursing in the Past, you don't have to be from a previous era to join in, I'm not, but I promise to cherish each piece of information.
Any books or movies you could recommend a plus too! (History Buff!)
And, if you are from an era before the present, please share some stories about the Nursing Profession, and other memorable events from thah era!!! I can't wait to read them!!! If these stories aren't passed on, it makes me shiver to think we could loose just one!!
What Could You Share about the "Way Things Were Back Then?"
