FERGUS – Like most jobs over the past few decades, nursing has seen its fair share of changes, thanks to new technology, tools and methodology.
Ahead of National Nurses Week, from May 12 to 18, local nurses were asked about how transformations in the profession over the decades have changed how they perform their job.
DEANNA BURNS
Deanna Burns, a registered nurse at Groves Memorial Community Hospital with 38 years of experience, said when her career began everything was handwritten.
“Charts, medication records, you name it. We relied on thick textbooks instead of Google,” she said.
Now, with tools like electronic charts, automated medication systems, and portable diagnostic tools, nurses can work more efficiently and focus more of their time and energy on patients.
“Things are done smarter, not harder,” Burns said.
For Sandra Thompson, a registered nurse at Groves with 25 years of experience, the thing that stands out in her memory is all the paper they used to have to print out.
“We had to calculate everything manually, and cardiac monitoring was entirely paper-based; we’d print out yards and yards of it,” she said.
Now that much of the job is digital, staff can quickly and easily review patient data at any time.
“It’s a whole new world,” Thompson said.
Nurses continue to play a critical role in the Canadian health care system. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, in 2021 there were just over 459,000 regulated nurses eligible to practice in this country and three-quarters of those (312,000) were registered nurses.
Despite advancements in technology, one aspect of nursing remains virtually unchanged: it continues to be a profession dominated by women. In 2021, about 91 per cent of all nurses were female, according to the Canadian Nurses Association.
To help bridge the gap between different generations of nurses and to retain and pass along valuable knowledge, many hospitals and nursing programs pair new graduates with more experienced veterans through mentorship initiatives.
Aedrianne Malawis has one year of registered nursing experience at Groves and said her mentor and the staff in the emergency department helped shape who she is today.
“They showed me how to lead with empathy, think critically, and stay calm under pressure,” said Malawis.
These relationships are key when fostering strong interdisciplinary teams of health care providers who must respond to modern challenges like the pandemic, health care recruitment and tough days on the job.
“Staying resilient takes self-care, emotional intelligence, and a strong support system at work,” said Malawis. “We lift each other up through the hard days.”
