Pictures of bad practice from history?

[ladybugsea]

I'm doing a group presentation on the nurse's role in safety and quality. We thought it would be fun to have a few pictures of bad practice from history (ie a nurse doing a procedure without gloves, something not sterile, high bed with no rails, etc). If anyone has come across any links to pictures like this, I'd appreciate it. I haven't come up with anything yet. Also any movie clips that you can think of (someone brought up Dances With Wolves but I don't think there were nurses). Thanks!

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

Easy enough, just youtube any episode of any medical show on tv primetime and you'll see tons of bad practice :lol:

**that's IF nurses are shown doing what they actually do and not having the docs doing everything** (specifically thinking of House, where the docs do everything from venipuncture to brain surgery hehehe**

[wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA]

Here is a link to some historic surgical pictures. http://www.anesthesia-nursing.com/history.html

Just scroll down to the bottom.

[rph3664]

Easy enough, just youtube any episode of any medical show on tv primetime and you'll see tons of bad practice :lol:

**that's IF nurses are shown doing what they actually do and not having the docs doing everything** (specifically thinking of House, where the docs do everything from venipuncture to brain surgery hehehe**

Not to mention that on TV, doctors inform relatives of a patient's death or serious illness in the parking lot or a crowded hallway. And they sit by the patient's bedside waiting for the family to arrive.

I collect old medical books, and some of the practices blow me away! And until very recently, gloves were NOT de rigeuer (sp?) I recently watched a Frontline DVD about "The Age of AIDS" and they showed people drawing blood IN THE 1970s not wearing gloves! Blew me away! We didn't know about AIDS then, but we certainly knew about hepatitis.

In 25 or 50 years, we will look back on our state of the art medicine and wonder what we were thinking. I got my pharmacy degree in 1994, and so much has changed in that short time!

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

I was one of those who didn't wear gloves during time w/possible contact w/bodily fluids!! And it wasn't in the 70's! It was the early/mid 80's! No one wore gloves, and they were hard to come by. the ONLY time as a CNA did we ever wear gloves if there was just a mess of BM everywhere!! Rationale was, WHAT could these little old ladies and men have?? Scarey to think of it now, but it wasn't that we were breaking any laws/practices, Standard Precaution wasn't around then.

I took a peek at my A&P book from college (I started my freshman year in the Fall of 1987) not one single word about AIDS/HIV!! and it was a current edition!

To think of all the things we did as treatments...wow! There is a thread somewhere about "old school" nursing practices, that I found myself shaking my head "yup, i remember that"