Holy Family Hospital, Manitowoc, WI published a list of nurses duties from 1889 in the hospital's centennial booklet in 1999.

On the list was this disclaimer: "Duties of nurses in 1889 was not written in Manitowoc but gives us a picture of the hospital culture in the late 1800s."

The list starts out, "In addition to caring for your 50 patients, each nurse will follow these regulations:"

1. Daily sweep and mop the floors of your ward, dust the patient's furniture and window sills.

2. Maintain an even temperature in your ward by bringing in a scuttle of coal for the day's business.

3. Light is important to observe the patient's condition. Therefore each day fill kerosene lamps, clean chimneys and trim wicks.

4. The nurse's notes are important in aiding the physician's work. Make your pens carefully; you may whittle nibs to your individual taste.

5. Each nurse on day duty will report every day at 7 a.m. and leave at 8 p.m. except on the Sabbath on which day you will be off from noon to 2 p.m.

6. Graduate nurses in good standing with the director of nurses will be given an evening off each week for courting purposes or two evenings a week if you go to church regularly.

7. Each nurse should lay aside from each payday a goodly sum of her earnings for her benefits during her declining years so that she will not become a burden. For example, if you earn $30 a month you should set aside $15.

8. Any nurse who smokes, uses liquor in any form, gets her hair done at a beauty shop, or frequents dance halls will give the director of nurses good reason to suspect her worth, intentions and integrity.

9. The nurse who performs her labors and serves her patients and doctors faithfully and without fault for a period of five years will be given an increase by the hospital administration of five cents a day, providing there are no hospital debts that are outstanding.

I find this list fascinating as it reflects how much nursing responsibilities and duties have changed over the past 100 years or so. While you will not remember back to 1889 (!), how about those of you who were practicing 20, 30 or 40 years ago? What are the biggest differences you see?

I'll start it off.

When I first started working as a Nursing Assistant in 1983 while going to nursing school.  I remember wearing gloves while performing colostomy care on a fresh colostomy patient. When we left the room, my supervisor reamed me out for the WASTE in resources and my INSENSITIVITY for the poor patient dealing with his fresh colostomy; that I would distance myself with the gloves! We never wore gloves to start IVs. When you needed gloves, they were down the hall in the clean utility room, not on the wall of every room. Needles had to be broken off syringes prior to throwing away the syringe. Thermometers were all mercury and had to be sterilized. . . they were placed in the utility room in an emesis basin until the end of the shift and then sent to be cleaned. Bedpans were metal, not plastic and the kind nurse would warm it with water then dry it prior to placing it under a patient.  Oh and by the way, this was a major teaching hosptial!

prettykitty64 says ...

Holy Family Hospital, Manitowoc, WI published a list of nurses duties from 1889 in the hospital's centennial booklet in 1999.

On the list was this disclaimer: "Duties of nurses in 1889 was not written in Manitowoc but gives us a picture of the hospital culture in the late 1800s."

The list starts out, "In addition to caring for your 50 patients, each nurse will follow these regulations:"

1. Daily sweep and mop the floors of your ward, dust the patient's furniture and window sills.

2. Maintain an even temperature in your ward by bringing in a scuttle of coal for the day's business.

3. Light is important to observe the patient's condition. Therefore each day fill kerosene lamps, clean chimneys and trim wicks.

4. The nurse's notes are important in aiding the physician's work. Make your pens carefully; you may whittle nibs to your individual taste.

5. Each nurse on day duty will report every day at 7 a.m. and leave at 8 p.m. except on the Sabbath on which day you will be off from noon to 2 p.m.

6. Graduate nurses in good standing with the director of nurses will be given an evening off each week for courting purposes or two evenings a week if you go to church regularly.

7. Each nurse should lay aside from each payday a goodly sum of her earnings for her benefits during her declining years so that she will not become a burden. For example, if you earn $30 a month you should set aside $15.

8. Any nurse who smokes, uses liquor in any form, gets her hair done at a beauty shop, or frequents dance halls will give the director of nurses good reason to suspect her worth, intentions and integrity.

9. The nurse who performs her labors and serves her patients and doctors faithfully and without fault for a period of five years will be given an increase by the hospital administration of five cents a day, providing there are no hospital debts that are outstanding.

I find this list fascinating as it reflects how much nursing responsibilities and duties have changed over the past 100 years or so. While you will not remember back to 1889 (!), how about those of you who were practicing 20, 30 or 40 years ago? What are the biggest differences you see?

 

I'll start it off.

When I first started working as a Nursing Assistant in 1983 while going to nursing school.  I remember wearing gloves while performing colostomy care on a fresh colostomy patient. When we left the room, my supervisor reamed me out for the WASTE in resources and my INSENSITIVITY for the poor patient dealing with his fresh colostomy; that I would distance myself with the gloves! We never wore gloves to start IVs. When you needed gloves, they were down the hall in the clean utility room, not on the wall of every room. Needles had to be broken off syringes prior to throwing away the syringe. Thermometers were all mercury and had to be sterilized. . . they were placed in the utility room in an emesis basin until the end of the shift and then sent to be cleaned. Bedpans were metal, not plastic and the kind nurse would warm it with water then dry it prior to placing it under a patient.  Oh and by the way, this was a major teaching hosptial!

 

Oh my gosh prettykitten this is soo great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PrettyK,

Thanks for the the list...I have never seen that one before. In reading #8 whaddaya think they thought of Flo (Nightingale)...hehehehe! She was known as a party girl...some books indicate that she died of tertiary syphilis. Though that is not noted in many biographies, no one denies the fact that she refused to marry and had numerous 'relationships' at least one with a married man.

I guess that goes to show some things never change...she came from money...I doubt any DON was allowed to question her integrity.

So back on topic, I graduated in 1982 and started off in MICU/CCU at an indigent/teaching hosptal in Augusta, GA and then moved to Atlanta where I worked on the cardiology stepdown unit at Emory. Emory had brought on Andreas Gruentzig, MD as an attending (for those of you that don't know him, he is the man that invented angioplasty) so my unit became the angioplasty unit. It was a very exciting and fast paced time...(I promise I'm getting to a point) anyway, as Deb said, narcotics were locked up w/ one set of keys...however, due to the 'patient turnover' (PTCA's were hospitalized for at least 3 days) we kept a ton of meds (Xanax, darvocet, percocet, valium, sleeping meds, etc.) in a top drawer of the med cart. This was to ensure that once a pt. returned from his procedure we wouldn't have to wait for their meds to arrive but could give them something for pain, etc.

Oh, I remember maybe two bins for disposing syringes, I came home many nights with meds and used, recapped syringes in my pockets.

Oh, and gloves...that was what the nurse behind you brought when you were runnning down the hall because someone's femoral catheters had come out. We just dove right in. I even remember using Amiodarone for the first time...it waas experimental.

Finally, M...thanks for the backhanded compliment ya wench! In my day...we only had to fill the kerosene lamps once a week. ;-)

Jane

Dialysis was still in its' infancy. It was viewed as a last resort, when all else had been tried and failed. We would get patients in their final stages. Patients so debilitated by this time that they would often code on the machine.

I was part of the surgical team for preparing the patient for dialysis including assisting in the OR during implantation of the shunt. The dialysis machine was like a big washing machine. We had to mix our own baths (dialysate), a litle of this, a little of that, some salt, a speck of pepper, a little parsley, mix it all up with our arms and we were done. Next, the resident would come in and we'd put the patient on the machine. There were giant tubes everywhere. I was always in peril of tripping or hanging. Once on I'd begin doing clotting times, giving heparin, drawing labs, adjusting the bath, doing CPR.

It was very exhausting, scary and exciting all rolled up into one.

I was born at Holy Family Hospital way back when! I lived not to far from it for the first 18 years of my life!

 Nurse used to get up to let the doctors have their chair, (I never did though) lol 

Its been a long weekend working!  I am responding to Jegray..................so Flo had std cooties?  Who would have thunk it?

prettykitty64, and others here, 

 Isn't it fun to have known a nurse from a different era.? My grandmother graduated in 1929. She was a psych nurse and she spent many hours of each day filling the tanks with ice for the epileptic patients.  When they had seizures, she buried them in ice!  Then as time progressed and we learned more, she was transferred to a female ward. 16 patients per room. These patients had gone "mental" during menapause and were receiving shock therapy!  At the beginning of her shift, instead of narc count, she was required to check the needles that came out of the sterilizer for spurs!  She was married but could not reveal it because it was  forbidden. After she got pregnant for my mother, she sewed her uniforms and ate tiny portions so that the DON would not notice that she was pregnant.  When I was a teenager and my mother was going through menapause, my grandmother would caution me daily not to upset my mother because she could lose her mind!  Her uniforms and her cap were starched with cook starch. 

I can not imagine being a nurse back then.  No penicillin. Only sulfa for infection, TB treated with quarantine and fresh air, infected wounds were treated with maggots and congestive heart failure was called "dropsy" and treated wtih leeches.

I'm happy I'm becoming a nurse in today's world. I could never have been a nurse then. MOPPING!!! OMG....I'd kill myself.

I could never give my seat up too. I'll put that in spot number one instead of the mopping. LOLOL

I bet there are a few doctors around today who think they can pull this crap too....that's the sad part. Still, no respect for nurses.

Remember, doctors save lives, but nurses save doctors!