Reeling in the Years: A Look at Nursing History

May 7th, 2007  |  Reeling in the Years: A Look at Nursing History

Welcome to the first posting of my new Nursing Jobs.org column, Reeling in the Years – A Look at Nursing History.

There is a lot to learn about our profession and every Monday, right here, I’ll be taking a look back at an aspect of nursing history that I find interesting. I hope you will find it interesting, also.

I hope to encourage an appreciation of our collective past as our profession faces a challenging future.

I’m obsessed with nursing history. Specifically nursing caps and uniforms, circa 1940-1960. The more I searched for nursing ephemera, the more interested I became with the history of nursing itself.

I discovered some amazing things.

Did you know the debate on the entry level of the nursing profession has gone back at least fifty years?

I thought it started back in the ’70s when I was a student in an ADN program.

Did you know there were graduate programs in nursing in the 1940’s?

I didn’t. I thought a diploma program was the only nursing education in existence at that time.

Can you guess who said this?

…remember every nurse should be one who is to be depended upon, in other words, capable of being, a “confidential” nurse. She does not know how soon she may find herself placed in such a situation; she must be no gossip, no vain talker; she should never answer questions about her sick except to those who have a right to ask them…

No, it was not the head of the Joint Commission!

About 140 years before we ever heard the word “HIPAA”, Florence Nightingale was discussing the need for patient confidentiality in her “Notes on Nursing”.

I bet she never had to shred every piece of paper with a patient’s name on itl

She had other concerns:

I wish, too, that people who wear crinoline could see the indecency of their own dress as other people see it. A respectable elderly woman stooping forward, invested in crinoline, exposes quite as much of her own person to the patient lying in the room as any opera dancer does on the stage. But no one will ever tell her this unpleasant truth.

Ladies, are you exposing too much of your person? No crinoline! I bet that was the very first dress code in nursing. I have no doubt that she would have found the short skirts of the 1970’s uniforms scandalous!

Actually, quoting Ms. Nightingale is quite appropriate, as her birthday is May 12th and this is National Nurses Week.

There is so much more of nursing lore to discover. Join me next Monday, same time, same website and we’ll look at another aspect of our nursing heritage.

Don’t forget to wish your favorite nurse a “Happy National Nurses Week”!

Kim McAllister, RN
About Kim McAllister, RN
After 29 years as an RN, I decided I needed a change. So, I decided to keep working as an RN and blog now and then at emergiblog.com. Two years later, I'm blogging full time and actually went back to school for my BSN. I'm based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. After stints in Coronary Care, Intensive Care, Telemetry, Telephone Advice and Psychiatry, I found my niche in emergency nursing and have spent the last 16 years in that specialty. That's where I am today — full time blogger, emergency nurse and now columnist for Nursing Jobs.org!

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