Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
This here crusty old bat remembers wearing white stockings and gloves were non existent. We did everything with our bare hands. I was a nurses aide in 1964. That was before nurses aides even had to be certified.
This here crusty old bat remembers wearing white stockings and gloves were non existent. We did everything with our bare hands. I was a nurses aide in 1964. That was before nurses aides even had to be certified.
I was a nurse's aid in the mid-1970's & didn't have to be certified. I worked in a nursing home on night shift while I was in nursing school & a few of the nurses let me do "skills" that were not typically done by nurse's aids, such as inserting quite a few foleys, because they knew I was a nursing student. I don't think that's done much anymore but it sure did help me build up my confidence.
I had the same thing happen with a Percocet.... dropped it, 3 nurses searched the med room and couldn't find it... pulled an unGodly amount of stuff off the shelves, called supervisor, pharmacist and did incident report...
I always emptied my pockets before leaving the floor.... found that darn thing buried in the bottom of my scrub pocket ... tracked down the super and showed her.... was always spastic about being accused of taking narcs!!!
Was it common for students to have patterned shirts?
All of these uniforms look so stiff and tight, I can't imagine trying to provide patient care dressed like that.
Original nurses "uniform" from Florence Nightingale's time onwards was based on that of servants/maids. That is some sort of dress made from a plain patterned but sturdy material (checks, stripes, etc...) and an apron/pinafore. Everyone who did any sort of work wore aprons back then to keep clothing clean. Laundry being a several day long affair (if the article of clothing could be washed at all, no dry cleaning so wool and silk would be a problem), you can imagine mothers and anyone else was wanting to keep clothing clean long as possible.
In hospital/providing healthcare aprons functioned the same as they did elsewhere, they kept your clothing clean. For some however they also represented servitude (again maids), but you still needed to keep your clothing clean.
Gradually at least in the USA by WWI white became the color associated with "trained" nurses uniforms. The advent of washing machines (even if only in commercial laundries) meant clothing was easier to be cleaned and could be done so in less than a day. Thus gradually graduate nurses began to shift out of pinafores/aprons (which many hated anyway because yes, they were often starched to death and not very comfortable), but sadly student nurse uniforms often kept some version of the two piece dress and pinafore or bib really until rather recently.
Many of the old hospital diploma three year programs had different uniforms to indicate the grade of nurse. Things varied but usually broke down to first year being "probationary", then second and third year.
You can see in this picture from the old New York's Roosevelt Hospital school of nursing the hierarchy. First year probbies are down in front (plain uniform without a cap), second and third year students follow on the next tiers (lighter color uniform, pinafore and cap) and graduate nurses/instructors (starched whites and cap) on the top rows.
Keep in mind that nursing uniforms (including students) often closely followed the fashions of the period. Right though the 1950's leaving aside a few eras such as the "Flapper" of 1920's any female past puberty would have had some rather restrictive undergarments. Girdles, corsets, suspender belts, etc...., as such the dress either by design or adaption fitted what was underneath.
Many of the old student and graduate nurse dresses were rather shapeless. They had to be first because it made laundering and ironing (by hand or machine) easier, but as with all clothing back then things didn't come in many sizes. You got something that fit a range (small, medium and large basically), and you adjusted things to fit by buttons, tapes, hooks, etc... Thus it wasn't always the dress that had a small waist, but you could make your apron tighter which held everything together.
Long story short by the 1960's less restrictive female fashions were taking hold everywhere and that included student nurse uniforms. Sleeves got shorter, many places ditched aprons/pinafores in favor of one piece dresses, and by the 1970's pants became an option. Where aprons or whatever did still exist they likely were more comfortable (not starched).
gneolog
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Shaking down thermometers
Running injection needles through gauze each morning to make sure there were no nicks, before autoclaving them
No ICU for critical patients
Wards