Information On Nursing School Before 1972

hollykate · Jan 23, 2006

my 88 yr old Grandmother went to Nursing school at Syracuse University probably sometime in 1930 or so. She describes all sorts of things, and is even impressed that I am allowed to take a blood pressure and assess heart and lung sounds. She went to a three year program and was quite annoyed because the next year they came up with a bachelors program, and she wanted to do that because it would have allowed ehr to take the English classes (She is a big reader). She recalls things like sharpening needles...and also sterilizeing them for reuse (eeks!! )

and she describes some strange provess for preparing narcotics for injection, but it could just be her alzeheimers kicking in. Much emphasis was put on appearance. and of course in her program, one could not be married.

Stitchie · Jan 23, 2006

My 75 year old mother in law said that when she was trained as a RN, also in a diploma program, she had to give up her seat to doctors. She also had to follow them around and write orders in all the patients' charts.

She was a public health nurse and only worked for one year after getting her license. One would wonder why? :chuckle

buggyjoe8039 · Jan 24, 2006

Thank you so much for the information. I can't believe some of the things they used to do!

BUGGY:rolleyes:

elkpark · Jan 24, 2006

I can't believe some of the things they used to do!
BUGGY:rolleyes:

(Keep in mind that, some day, people will be saying the same thing about us and the practices that we consider so advanced and enlightened ... :) )

Editorial Team / Admin · Jan 24, 2006

hollykate
my 88 yr old Grandmother went to Nursing school at Syracuse University probably sometime in 1930 or so. She describes all sorts of things, and is even impressed that I am allowed to take a blood pressure and assess heart and lung sounds. She went to a three year program and was quite annoyed because the next year they came up with a bachelors program, and she wanted to do that because it would have allowed ehr to take the English classes (She is a big reader). She recalls things like sharpening needles...and also sterilizeing them for reuse (eeks!! )
and she describes some strange provess for preparing narcotics for injection, but it could just be her alzeheimers kicking in. Much emphasis was put on appearance. and of course in her program, one could not be married.[/

Stitchie
My 75 year old mother in law said that when she was trained as a RN,
also in a diploma program, she had to give up her seat to doctors. She
also had to follow them around and write orders in all the patients'
charts.

I'm not 88 or 75 or anywhere close and I had to do these things. I started out in a Catholic hospital. No marrying. No dating. Yes, re resterilized our needles. Used them again. Used pure grain alcohol to fix our pap smear slides. Wore cloth gowns and masks in surgery. Kept our gloves and gowns on between surgical cases ...... washed off the gloves......to keep from having to do a 5-10 min. scrub. Used Delee traps by mouth. If a doctor came to the station, yep.......you surrendered your seat. All glass IV bottles. All rectal exams for the woman in labor.

I could go on.

suzanne4, RN · Jan 24, 2006

Siri,

You left out the enemas for the woman in labor...............:rotfl:

hollykate · Jan 24, 2006

you know, I still give up my seat for an MD, IF there is no other seat available and the MD needs to do some writing. Usually I'm right in front of the computer where the MD wants to check labs. But I don't hop right up...

Editorial Team / Admin · Jan 24, 2006

Siri,
You left out the enemas for the woman in labor...............:rotfl:

....oh, yeah, suzanne, thanks.......enemas for all upon presentation to the L and D unless the head was already delivered.....:rotfl:

1Tulip · Jan 24, 2006

OMG you guys make me feel so old.

I graduated from the University of Tennessee Memphis in 1971. It was about a five year program because they had many, many liberal arts pre-req's that were taken elsewhere. (Memphis was a medical units only branch of the University. I took my pre-req's at Memphis State University which doesn't exist any longer.) The nursing curriculum was three years, starting in clinicals like in the second quarter of our first year there. I think it's safe to say, for BSN students, we were clinically heavy. But also class-room heavy. It was just a tough, tough program. Micro, A&P, Organic and Bio Chem, all while we were also taking a lot of credit hours in nursing.

To get an A you had to get a 95. There was no lee-way, no rounding up. I never made an A in nursing, never made less than an A in my sciences.

As to differences in things we did then... I think we were nursing on the cusp. Nursing was being understood as a highly educated/trained profession, we were beginning to push the boundaries of "nursing" practice. But there were no nurse practitioners. (CRNA's however, have been around forever.)

ICU's were in a phase of rapid development. "Shock Lung" (ARDS) was a newly recognized thing. Volume cycled ventilators were new. PEEP was an add on as we learned about pulmonary compliance in the critically ill. (I remember putting the expiratory hose of a MAC-1 in a big mayonaise jar filled with water, increasing the PEEP by putting it further under water. I had a ruler in the jar and taped the hose to it according to how much PEEP we wanted to give.) That was extreme, because ventilators were up-dated pretty quickly.

Other than that, honestly, we were in the modern age of health care. Really it wasn't so primitive as you might imagine. We did more sterilizing and had fewer things disposable. We used mercury thermometers. (Had a patient eat his once. He got rectal temps after that.) It was just becoming more common for nurses to have their own stethoscopes and we were beginning to listen to chests and bellies and hearts. Fewer IV pumps (as in none.) We did the math and counted drops about every 30 min to an hour, which was OK because if the pt. had an IV he was probably sick enough to be looked in on that frequently.

Four function, hand-held calculators were not invented yet. So when we were doing peritoneal dialysis, we'd end up with long columns of numers to add up to keep track of net gain/loss of fluid.

It doesn't seem that long ago to me. I'd still stack my education up against anyone's today. It was pretty damn good.