How do nurses today feel the role of nursing has changed over the years.
Jen R. a nurse in a current NICU
I was fortunate enough to be able to interview several nurses that are working at The Ohio State University Medical Center to gain information about how current nurses perceive that their job field has changed over the years. While the consensus is that the job conditions over the years have improved there are still many things that are the same.
There is a change in who is a nurse. Early on any medical professional was a male, then as nursing really took effect it became known more as a women’s profession. Women were nurses and men were doctors. Nowadays there is a mixture between women and men, while a majority of nurses are still women the number of men in the field is rapidly expanding, many work in trauma settings such as emergency rooms and intensive care units. Another change is you have many different races and ethnic cultures working in the nursing profession. One nurse said “in the 1950’s if a black woman was a nurse she could only care for black patients – even in the military” (Martele B.) Another pointed out that “being a woman of color I was surprised to see my manager 20 years ago was a woman of color also” (Margaret B.). A great number of the nurses I talked to mentioned that Shelly, an African American nurse, who had been their manager for 20+ years, was a great influence and source of passion to them on the job.
Nurses feel one big improvement is in the area of uniforms. Universally nurses now wear scrubs; gone are the days of dresses and hats. In fact one nurse said her mother “decided to work at OSU because you weren’t required to wear hats, one of the first and this was 1974” (Jenny L.). She and many others remembered either seeing nurses (mostly family members) or themselves wearing dresses and sometimes hats well into the 1980’s. Tammy W. said that in nursing school “we had to wear a light blue herringbone dress with a white apron and a cap, we could not put on the cap and apron until we arrived on the unit”. This in some ways reminds me of how today in some units especially intensive care units, operating rooms and labor & delivery unit’s nurses are supplied scrubs and have to change at the hospital when they arrive to work and before they leave. Many feel that dresses and hats were very impractical to the nursing profession. Some stated that the hat would often fall off especially when leaning over a patient, and dresses were not good for a job where one has to stoop and squat down multiple times a day. Jen R. stated “I once had to Jump on a bed to perform compressions on a 350+ pound patient who was covered in filth, you cannot do that in a dress” Long gone are the days of having to wear all white, many facilities while still have some white they are also allowed to wear other colors – at The Ohio State Medical Center nurses have the choice of wearing either white or navy or a combination of the two. There are many hospitals that allow nurses to wear whatever type of scrubs tops that they like only limiting the color of the pants, and others they can wear any color they would like.
There still is a bit of debate over the relationship between doctors and nurses and the care of the patients. While many would agree that the communication has improved over the years some would say there is still room for improvement. One nurse stated “Physicians used to think that nurses should give up their chairs for them – listen to what they said without question. Today we are part of the team; all ask questions and impact care.” (Michele S.) Other nurses felt that they would be asked their opinion but it wasn’t taken, so they felt in some cases it was useless to speak up when asked since they weren’t going to be listened to anyhow. There is also a change in the formality between doctors and nurses. For example nurses still call doctors by their title, i.e. Dr. Cozzi, you often hear nurses and doctors addressing each other by their first names.
As RN’s gain higher education levels they have more responsibilities within the patient care role. Many nurses also go on to become nurse practitioners working side by side with doctors doing much of the same care and in some states they can even write out prescriptions for their patients. As one of our nurse practitioners stated “being able to collaborate with physicians and work as a team for the best outcome of the patients, vs., ‘following orders’ has been a big accomplishment. I think many nursing administrative roles have helped pave the way for female “leaders” in medicine.” (René H.) Nurses have opportunities to work on “committees” to help improve the care of the patients on their units. This along with the ability to gain higher education has helped improve the role throughout the years. There are many levels of nursing whether you want to be in an office setting or working on a hospital floor to even working with insurance companies. Many nurses also end up working in specialties; you have nurses that work only in cancer hospitals and others that work with babies in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. As nurses work in one specialty it becomes the area they are most comfortable in. Many NICU nurses would be lost if they were put on an adult unit and the reverse is true for nurses that work with an adult population, many say they would be completely out of place if they were sent to a children’s unit.
The job conditions for nurses have changed over the years. Though nurses will tell you there has been vast improvement, the general consensus is there is still much room for improvement. Even with small things like thermometers, “we used to have to shake thermometers and ‘guess’ at the temp” (Ann H.), now there are probes on the monitors for those in intensive care and we have digital thermometers for temperature checks. With modern technology came computer charting – some like the idea others feel that it takes away from time they could be spending with the patient. Today nurses have flexible schedules, while there are shifts 7 days a week, 24 hours a day many nurses are able to work shifts varying from 4, 8, or 12 hours. It used to be that nurses would work five 8 hour shifts a week where now the majority works three 12 hour shifts or a mixture of 8 and 12 hour shifts is common. The nursing profession has evolved over time with differences in how we view jobs/schooling verses family life. One nurse remembers when she was in school she “was told when she got married that her duty was to her husband and not to her schooling or job” (Tammy W.). Currently many jobs and schooling programs expect you to put your job/schooling first and your family life second.
So with growth and changes in the field we become better able to care for our patients giving life to those that would have perished just a few years earlier. Midge L, an RN put it nicely “ There are many changes that will occur over a span of time, in order to finish well with a good sense of accomplishment, we must also be able to change with the times as changes present themselves. Changes will happen! That is the only constant.”
There is a change in who is a nurse. Early on any medical professional was a male, then as nursing really took effect it became known more as a women’s profession. Women were nurses and men were doctors. Nowadays there is a mixture between women and men, while a majority of nurses are still women the number of men in the field is rapidly expanding, many work in trauma settings such as emergency rooms and intensive care units. Another change is you have many different races and ethnic cultures working in the nursing profession. One nurse said “in the 1950’s if a black woman was a nurse she could only care for black patients – even in the military” (Martele B.) Another pointed out that “being a woman of color I was surprised to see my manager 20 years ago was a woman of color also” (Margaret B.). A great number of the nurses I talked to mentioned that Shelly, an African American nurse, who had been their manager for 20+ years, was a great influence and source of passion to them on the job.
Nurses feel one big improvement is in the area of uniforms. Universally nurses now wear scrubs; gone are the days of dresses and hats. In fact one nurse said her mother “decided to work at OSU because you weren’t required to wear hats, one of the first and this was 1974” (Jenny L.). She and many others remembered either seeing nurses (mostly family members) or themselves wearing dresses and sometimes hats well into the 1980’s. Tammy W. said that in nursing school “we had to wear a light blue herringbone dress with a white apron and a cap, we could not put on the cap and apron until we arrived on the unit”. This in some ways reminds me of how today in some units especially intensive care units, operating rooms and labor & delivery unit’s nurses are supplied scrubs and have to change at the hospital when they arrive to work and before they leave. Many feel that dresses and hats were very impractical to the nursing profession. Some stated that the hat would often fall off especially when leaning over a patient, and dresses were not good for a job where one has to stoop and squat down multiple times a day. Jen R. stated “I once had to Jump on a bed to perform compressions on a 350+ pound patient who was covered in filth, you cannot do that in a dress” Long gone are the days of having to wear all white, many facilities while still have some white they are also allowed to wear other colors – at The Ohio State Medical Center nurses have the choice of wearing either white or navy or a combination of the two. There are many hospitals that allow nurses to wear whatever type of scrubs tops that they like only limiting the color of the pants, and others they can wear any color they would like.
There still is a bit of debate over the relationship between doctors and nurses and the care of the patients. While many would agree that the communication has improved over the years some would say there is still room for improvement. One nurse stated “Physicians used to think that nurses should give up their chairs for them – listen to what they said without question. Today we are part of the team; all ask questions and impact care.” (Michele S.) Other nurses felt that they would be asked their opinion but it wasn’t taken, so they felt in some cases it was useless to speak up when asked since they weren’t going to be listened to anyhow. There is also a change in the formality between doctors and nurses. For example nurses still call doctors by their title, i.e. Dr. Cozzi, you often hear nurses and doctors addressing each other by their first names.
As RN’s gain higher education levels they have more responsibilities within the patient care role. Many nurses also go on to become nurse practitioners working side by side with doctors doing much of the same care and in some states they can even write out prescriptions for their patients. As one of our nurse practitioners stated “being able to collaborate with physicians and work as a team for the best outcome of the patients, vs., ‘following orders’ has been a big accomplishment. I think many nursing administrative roles have helped pave the way for female “leaders” in medicine.” (René H.) Nurses have opportunities to work on “committees” to help improve the care of the patients on their units. This along with the ability to gain higher education has helped improve the role throughout the years. There are many levels of nursing whether you want to be in an office setting or working on a hospital floor to even working with insurance companies. Many nurses also end up working in specialties; you have nurses that work only in cancer hospitals and others that work with babies in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. As nurses work in one specialty it becomes the area they are most comfortable in. Many NICU nurses would be lost if they were put on an adult unit and the reverse is true for nurses that work with an adult population, many say they would be completely out of place if they were sent to a children’s unit.
The job conditions for nurses have changed over the years. Though nurses will tell you there has been vast improvement, the general consensus is there is still much room for improvement. Even with small things like thermometers, “we used to have to shake thermometers and ‘guess’ at the temp” (Ann H.), now there are probes on the monitors for those in intensive care and we have digital thermometers for temperature checks. With modern technology came computer charting – some like the idea others feel that it takes away from time they could be spending with the patient. Today nurses have flexible schedules, while there are shifts 7 days a week, 24 hours a day many nurses are able to work shifts varying from 4, 8, or 12 hours. It used to be that nurses would work five 8 hour shifts a week where now the majority works three 12 hour shifts or a mixture of 8 and 12 hour shifts is common. The nursing profession has evolved over time with differences in how we view jobs/schooling verses family life. One nurse remembers when she was in school she “was told when she got married that her duty was to her husband and not to her schooling or job” (Tammy W.). Currently many jobs and schooling programs expect you to put your job/schooling first and your family life second.
So with growth and changes in the field we become better able to care for our patients giving life to those that would have perished just a few years earlier. Midge L, an RN put it nicely “ There are many changes that will occur over a span of time, in order to finish well with a good sense of accomplishment, we must also be able to change with the times as changes present themselves. Changes will happen! That is the only constant.”