Nursing - do you remember?

I am an ageing nurse now, but still a lead educator of my profession. Recently, I became increasingly aware that my students (over a thousand of them) were widely using Twitter, and like lots of people of my age I had no idea what it was all about. So I went on a mission and learnt to tweet. And just a few weeks later I found myself following a host of interesting nurse tweeters - although I had no real way of knowing how old many of them might be.

And so, as an ‘older’ nurse, I was intrigued on 1 January 2012 when Toni Jenkins @amnerisuk sent me a tweet saying “Saw this and thought of you lol”. Attached was a photograph of a Kings College Hospital nursing badge - identical to my very own precious heirloom of over 30 years ago. The following hour saw an outpouring of ‘do you remembers’ from nurses all over Twitter. Let me give you just a few examples.

“Do you remember Omnopon and scopolamine premeds, and the obligatory Spencer Wells forceps carried by nurses usually with name bracelet on, tidy rounds and weekend cleaning, and tongue depressors with formula for drip rates on them?”

“Do you remember when there were bed cradles and pleated sheets to fit them, and patients lying on top of bed ready for the ward round?”

“Do you remember doing nipple to ankle shaves pre ‘CABG’, and Betadine baths, and many tailed bandage for abdominal wounds, and stump bandaging?”

“Do you remember reusable syringes and needles for diabetics, and glass syringes for paraldehyde, and when heparin came in an ampoule (you drew up 0.2ml and using an orange needle).”

“Do you remember when it was a hanging offence to be in uniform without hat and belt, and when pillows facing same way, when we had stainless steel vomit bowels with lids, and big hot steaming bed pan washers, steel bedpans, glass urinals, sphygs in wooden boxes, and when you only ran for fire and haemorrhage.”

There were many more….

So many memories. But don’t get me wrong, I am not looking back wistfully - there was much that was not right then that we do right now. But what did stand out was that there was a well of collective memory that is still with us - and how modern social networks are able to tap into that.

I think that as a profession nursing must cherish its past if it is to grow in the future. Nursing history is full of rich examples of our roots and foundations, discipline, care, dignity, truth and compassion. That history casts a shining light on where we have come from, how far we have come, and perhaps maps out where we should be going. That rich story of recent nursing history is alive and well in the memories of so many living nurses. We have to keep talking - keep tweeting - and make sure that we record it all.

Dr. T.D. Barton is Academic Lead for Nursing/Head of the Department of Nursing in the College of Human and Health Sciences at Swansea University.

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