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Nurses, staff marvel at advances in technology, patient careThere’s no question that healthcare has come a long way in the last 50, 20 or even 10 years. Hospitals of old conjure up images of nurses in crisp white uniforms, glass IV containers and mercury thermometers. Nobody knows better how far technology, patient care and employee safety has come than some of the nurses and staff at New Ulm Medical Center who have been there since the 1970s or before. Carolyn Newman, RN, an inpatient nurse since 1973, laughs – and shudders – when she thinks of how many times she cleaned up mercury or blood with her bare hands. “We didn’t use gloves nearly as much as we do now,” she said. With good reason: the gloves were re-used, which means they were washed, sterilized, re-powdered and re-packaged every time they were used. In fact, almost everything was re-used years ago. Renee Petersen, RN, also an inpatient nurse, remembers sterilizing glass syringes and glass IVs, sharpening needles and re-using them. “Now everything is disposable,” she said. “I remember once, during bad weather, we were moving patients out into the halls and away from windows and a glass IV dropped and broke – there was glass everywhere.” Other things that were re-used would absolutely horrify today’s healthcare professionals; things like surgery sponges and gauze. “We had boards with nails in them and we would stretch the gauze over the nails to dry it after it had been washed,” Newman said. Of course, all that has gone by the wayside and almost everything is disposed of after a single use. Not only have the materials that are used improved, but the advances in technology have been remarkable. Technological progress has probably been most notable in the surgery and radiology departments, most agree. “At one time, when you wanted to find out what was wrong with someone, they would often do exploratory surgery,” said Diane Bianchi, a radiology technologist since 1971. “Now we have the PET/CT scanner, CT, ultrasound and such. Back then, a lot of people never did find out what was wrong with them, even after going through exploratory surgery.” Bianchi remembers developing x-ray film by hand because that was the quickest way when they were waiting for an x-ray in the surgery department. “Then we’d take the film – still wet and dripping – down the hall to surgery,” she said. “Now it’s all filmless and it is instantaneous.” Over in surgery, advances in laparoscopic surgery have made patient stays far shorter and comfort levels better. “In the operating room itself, now everybody sees what the surgeon sees up on the monitor when they are performing laparoscopic procedures,” said Monica Kirchberg, Certified Surgical Assistant/Certified First Assistant. She has worked in surgery since 1985. “The laparoscopic and arthroscopic procedures we do now have really changed how we do surgery and it will continue to change. It is amazing when you think of a laparoscopic hysterectomy that the doctor can extract a uterus through an incision that is less than one inch in size.” Years ago, patient stays for a surgery like that were not only longer for the recovery period, but prior to surgery as well. “Patients used to check in the night before and we’d do an elaborate showering procedure and sterilizing the surgical site with beta-dyne,” Newman said. Now patients take care of much of the preparation and the recovery at home. “We also do a lot more education than we used to when we send patients home,” Newman said. Specialization of nursing services is another thing that has seen dramatic changes over the years. “We used to do it all – OB, critical care, post-surgical care, and emergency room care,” said Yvonne Gag, LPN, who has been at the medical center for 40 years. “We even helped out at the Alexander Home (a nursing home) if they needed you. You learned to read the signs and symptoms of a wide variety of conditions.” Gag said, though many things have improved over the years, she misses the connection nursing used to have time to make with the patients. With some patients admitted for several weeks or sometimes months and less paperwork involved, nurse and patient would easily build a more personal relationship. Monica Mueller, RN, even remembers one patient who stayed over a year. “It was almost the equivalent of home care or assisted living that we have today.” Muller started as a “night supervisor” in 1973, she said, “Which meant you oversaw the whole hospital and you made the decisions. Supervisors turned into ‘float nurses.’ Now, each department makes their own decisions, but they still run things through the float nurse.” Mueller remembered how medications used to be located right in the patient care areas. “You had your own little pharmacy right there on the unit,” she said. Outside the patient care area, incredible advances have been made also. Norma Hanson, a transcriptionist since 1961, has seen the evolution of that field from hand-held voice recorders to fully-automated electronic medical record transcription. “When I started we had electric typewriters, but I remember one of the employees used a manual typewriter because she didn’t want to have anything to do with that ‘new-fangled’ thing,” Hanson said. Hanson has worked from home for about five years now – as do about five other NUMC transcriptionists. “It is really amazing what the technology allows us to do. We can keep working even if everyone else is snowed in,” Hanson said. “If a doctor has an emergency transfer and the helicopter is on its way and they want the transfer information sent with the patient or faxed immediately to the other facility, I can go in the middle of the night to my computer in my pajamas and have my machine up and running in five minutes.” In fact, helicopter transports themselves are relatively new, too. The list could go on and on. “Technologically, we’ve come a long ways,” Gag said. “Some of the things they are doing now in surgery and radiology – it’s like science fiction.” |
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New Ulm Medical Center
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