Nursing Then and Now

RN WRITER NC, ADN

Imagine becoming a registered nurse fifty-plus years ago in 1967. Back then, nursing was one of two career paths for graduating female seniors in high school. At that time, the decision for most young women was either to be a nurse or a teacher. Those who chose to nurse wore white starched uniforms which were dresses with pinafore aprons, white stockings, and clunky white orthopedic shoes. And don't forget the required paper or starched cotton white cap on the head! It would be almost five to ten years later before nurses could wear pants and more than ten years before they would do away with the caps! The women's liberation movement hadn't quite kicked in yet.

You had to really want to be a nurse! Student nurses were taught by senior nurses, and sometimes doctors in classrooms in the hospital environment, not in the university. Nurses got their clinical experience in the same hospital and provided care to real patients. One quickly learned that when the doctor entered the nurses' station, you gave up your seat to him. Just picture trying to study Anatomy and Physiology after an eight-hour shift working as a nursing student caring for sick people in the hospital. In your second or third year of nursing school, you might be a charge nurse over the ancillary staff, even though you were not licensed. Of course, there was always a supervisor in-house for you to ask questions or seek additional help from. When it came time for licensing and graduation, the nursing boards were two days long. Nursing students sat in a large auditorium, with uncomfortable chairs, attached desks, and paper documents complete with numerous sections requiring a thorough understanding of disease and the human body.

I watched my sister have a successful career as a registered nurse upon graduation from a hospital nursing school in Reading Pennsylvania in 1967. Marriage, after graduation, and then they began having children. She worked the night shift, came home, and got the kids off to school. Then she was up in the early afternoon before the children arrived home from their day at school. Meanwhile, her husband worked days and between the two of them, they prepared meals, helped with homework, and navigated bedtime for all before she went to work. Her nursing career lasted almost forty years, and it gave her multiple opportunities (in the ICU, PACU, and management) to make a great living; support her three children, all the while building a retirement for herself.

I, on the other hand, was squeamish around needles and blood so my parents did not promote nursing as a profession. This was discovered during multiple episodes of sore throats, colds, etc. which required visits to the doctor's office for antibiotics usually administered by injection. I still remember my first night in a hospital at five years old for a Tonsillectomy. Before the surgery, a blood draw was required that involved a finger stick and it was so traumatic that I cried, then fainted while Dad was holding me upright, feet flat on the floor. After that, medical personnel and my parents had to chase me around the examining table to get ahold of me so they could give me the injection. I wasn't much better around blood, on either myself or another. The fear factor rose so high, even in my teens; that one doctor suggested that I was having a vasovagal response and should try deep breathing.

So, after graduating from high school in 1967, the same year my sister became a nurse; neither nursing nor teaching looked good to me. But my parents convinced me to go to college and after much effort, I graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science degree and no teaching certificate. As I got older, I found the motivation to take that doctor's advice and learned deep breathing, meditation, and visualization as a method to avoid fainting. Especially, after passing out while watching the birth of a baby on film in a college First Aid class. As a handsome boy carried me out of the auditorium, I noted after fainting that it is never cool to pee your panties while wearing a mini dress!

Throughout my advanced education and young adult years, I worked as a nurse's aide and found that despite my aversion to blood and needles; I loved taking care of people and could make good money too. Slowly, I became very successful at deep breathing and meditation during blood draws, and vaccines and stopped passing out altogether. Then, I became a telemetry technician and monitored heart rhythms for abnormalities in a Cardiac unit. During that time, I was required to measure EKG tracings and detect lethal heart rhythms during an emergency or Code Blue event. With each new responsibility in healthcare, I grew more and more confident and less afraid of certain situations.

Later, when I got an opportunity to return to school it was a no-brainer, I became a second-career nurse and graduated as an RN in 2006. Thank the Lord, that I completed the nursing program, gained an incredible amount of confidence, and survived the nursing boards. The nursing philosophy back then in school was 'high tech/high touch.’

Unfortunately, now in 2022; I wonder what is happening to the 'high touch' aspect of nursing that I knew and loved when I started my nursing career. Where is the priority of 'high touch' in nursing these days which dedicates a moment between the nurse and the patient or resident to connect on the higher level of the heart? Because of the nursing shortage, nurses are denied the time they need to support their patients physically and emotionally at the bedside. In the absence of real-time support for the patients, I fear that many nurses will leave the profession because it just, is not what they signed up for. Reminds me of the old saying: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.” So, after many years of caregiving, and finding a niche in hospice and geriatric nursing, I plan to leave bedside nursing because of the physical demands caused by the nursing shortage. The rewards of nursing have been many, but soon I hope to change what I have to offer patients with a different focus and a more promising way of connecting to patients and caregivers through my practice.

Margaret Scranton, RN

Resources

Interview with a retired RN; author's older sister

Nursing Uniforms of the Past and Present – Nurse Uniforms History | Coffee Time - Pulse Uniform

Vasovagal Syncope: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment (healthline.com)

You Can Lead a Horse To Water, But... - Meaning, Origin (knowyourphrase.com)

Nursing Then and Now

About RN WRITER NC, ADN

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