Hospital Nursing During the 1970’s
Hospital Nursing During the 1970’s
Consider what was happening in nursing in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s with the change from diploma programs to an associate degree program. Martha Rogers believed that nursing is a separate and essential discipline and a unique field of study. She worked hard to establish nursing in higher education. Explain the importance of this shift and how it impacted nursing as a profession.
You would feel lost and confused if you were transported back in time to a hospital ward in the 1970’s when the nurses who are now at the end of their careers were students. But you would probably not be as out of your depth as a nurse from that era who suddenly found herself on duty in the present. Hospital Nursing During the 1970’s
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The world has changed dramatically over the past few decades, and most of the changes are the result of the growth in knowledge and technology. It has been calculated that towards the beginning of the 1900 knowledge was doubling only about every 100 years, after the World War II it was doubling every 25 years, and it is estimated that knowledge currently doubles on average every 13 months. There have also been noticeable social and cultural changes. Generally, life and human interaction have become far less structured and formal, most likely due to the global human rights movement. These developments have had a considerable effect on patient care, nursing, and nursing practice, as you will see from the recollections below. Hospital Nursing During the 1970’s
Nursing students were part of the nursing staff allocation
In 1970, I was accepted as a student nurse into the only degree program at the time. Although we were university students, we were on government bursaries (a monthly “salary”) and therefore answerable to the hospital authorities. The day after we reported for our course we went to work in our assigned ward for two weeks until lectures started at the University. Students were part of the staffing on the wards, and you had to learn on the go and quickly.
As first year students, we worked five hours per week during term time and a full 45 hours during university holidays except for the regular leave of 30 days a year. Work during term time increased to 20 hours per week in our second and third years (most of it during weekends), and to 40 hours in our fourth year. This while we still had to attend the reasonable number of lectures and study for tests and exams. Registration as a nurse required a certain number of night shift hours, so much of the time during University holidays were spent on night duty. Hospital Nursing During the 1970’s
Discipline
We had to live in the nurses’ residence during our first year. On weekdays, you had to sign in by 19:00 and weekends by 23:00 unless you had obtained a special dispensation from the matron of the hospital. You had to report for duty at least 15 minutes early for the handover report for all the patients on the unit. You were also expected to know the names and conditions of all 30 or more patients Hospital Nursing During the 1970’s.
