Nursing Then and Now

Nursing Then and NowThough we’ve already done a post about recruiting through the ages, recruiters obviously aren’t the only ones we work with here at RTG Medical.

And nursing is one of those rare career fields which has been around for generations and is still in high demand today.

At RTG Medical, we have more openings in nursing than in any other medical discipline due to all the subspecialties that have emerged over the years. Many of our traveling nurses are still in the early stages of their careers, so in honor of their predecessors, let’s take a look at how nursing has changed for the better over the years. 

  • Technology
    Gone are the days of paper charting, titrating IV drips manually and using potentially hazardous glass mercury thermometers. Technology—from electronic record-keeping to the emergence of highly accurate monitoring devices—has made many fundamental nursing tasks faster, easier, safer and more accurate. Today’s nurses have to know their way around a computer, but that’s a huge improvement over the bulky equipment, handwritten records and manual calculations of yesteryear.
  • Uniforms
    Imagine wearing a white dress, starched white pinafore and white hosiery while managing the often dirty work of everyday nursing. Top that uniform off with a stiff white cap bobby-pinned onto the top of your head, lace up a pair of white oxford-style shoes, and you have the basic nurse’s uniform of many decades past. Given the choice, you just know that every one of those women would probably have gladly traded in that white dress for a comfy pair of today’s scrubs and a nice cushy pair of washable athletic shoes or Crocs.
  • Environment
    Even the hospital environment is more pleasant and safer for nurses today than it was in the past. Universal precautions, for instance, weren’t introduced until the mid-‘80s; before that, barrier gowns, gloves, eye protection and face shields might have been in place only in surgical settings, and nurses took their chances with exposure to bodily fluids every day on the job. We’re glad to see that today’s hospitals are much cleaner, safer places.

Despite the fact that some aspects of the “good old days” weren’t really so good, the best things about the profession are still intact today, like the opportunity to help others in a meaningful way while making a comfortable living. Plus, if you’re a travel nurse, you get to meet new people and see new and interesting places.

If the opportunity to meet new people, see interesting new places, and help others sounds interesting to you, you may want to consider travel nursing. Contact our staffing specialists to find out more: 866-RTG-2DAY (784-2329).

photo credit: gbaku via photopin cc

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