Reflections on Advancements in Nursing

I’m flying today home today.

Soon I rejoin the nurses 

at the medical detox where I work.

Nursing tools of the trade

have changed as technology has advanced through the years.

In a three year diploma program in 1965 nursing students learned how to 

take vital signs using sound and touch

give injections

do a bed bath

make a linseed poultice

calculate dietary requirements

provide health teaching for patients

set up traction

make a bed with hospital corners

take out stitches

change dressings

feed a patient unable to feed themselves

hang an intravenous

wrap a tensor bandage

teach deep breathing exercises pre-operatively

Tympanic ear thermometers replace glass mercury thermometers

Assessing Blood Pressure manually vs digitally

Linseed poultices, long a thing of the past, are now microwave hot/cold gel packs - but seldom used

Dietitians in a distant office calculate dietary requirements

Smooth cotton sheets with folded hospital corners are jersey sheets with pocket corners.

A paper world of documentation is being replaced by the electronic world of computers.

On the surface of patient care,

all of these tools are used to dip beneath

to the soul bound by 

physical 

mental

emotional 
unrest and illness.

Easing distress with care, kindness and respect.

Care for those who cannot care for themselves.

"I feel a need for no other faith 

than my faith in human beings.  
~ Pearl S. Buck