Research Query: Hospitals of 30 Years Ago

[dewline]

Wondering where one might look for visuals of semi-private rooms of hospitals circa roughly thirty years ago...?

Comments

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

Appropriate movies set in that era? That's about all I can think, unless you can find some research/studies on hospitals in that era? I've found good asylum shots in the past from those.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Any particular movies of the period that you'd recommend?

Time to put in a call to [Bad username or site: polite dissent @ livejournal.com] while I'm at it...

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

I'm wracking my brain at the moment. I'm really bad at remembering movies. My memory has holes in it.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Meant to refer to Polite Dissent (http://politedissent.com/) there just now...

[madlycool.livejournal.com]

Did they look that much different than today's? Medical bed, sidetable/dresser, overhead and back light - not sure what would have changed. In fact, where i've been they're actually the same rooms.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I know they change things every year, through replacement of attritioned stuff alone...

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

The materials have changed a lot. The flooring is different now, the walls are painted differently, the beds are very different. There was less equipment on the walls. The nurses wore real uniforms. I have vague memories from childhood; it was unusual for a child to be allowed in to a room back in the day, but I do remember the emergency rooms and where you were put while you were waiting to be seen.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Sounds about right based on my memories of assorted relatives going in and coming out again, breathing or not...

[wldrose.livejournal.com]

how about the TVshows marcus welby or Emergancy.


Ash

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Later seasons of Emergency I could consider. Marcus Welby would be a bit on the "too early" side of things, I think.

St. Elsewhere, though...?

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of Emergency. But what about hitting up one of the nursing communities, maybe?

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Worth looking into, certainly. Are there such on LJ?

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

there should a few. maybe nursing?

[jackolantern.livejournal.com]

Call around to the larger and/or more established hospitals in your area and see if they have published photographic histories. Ours does; I can see if I can find a copy tomorrow, if I remember.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Good point. Something else for me to do in the weeks ahead. Thanks much!

[quietdarkness.livejournal.com]

Well, I wasn't working in a hospital 30 years ago, but I've certainly been in them at that time period, and I was a student nurse in them 25+ years ago, so I suspect that I have the information you are looking for.

Seriously, if you ignore the better decor and the tech gadgets, not that much has changed over the years. Semi private rooms have always had curtains that can be pulled between the beds for privacy. They had hand cranked hospital beds and hand cranked over the bed tables. A small night table usually was beside the bed. The floors were linoleum, the walls usually a beige color. Some hospitals had the sink in the room, and the bathroom just had the toilet and the shower. Nurses wore white uniforms (pants and dresses) 30 years ago, and in some places they had to wear their caps and their pins. Some RNs wore caps, and they had a black stripe on their caps, and each cap was different, depending on what school they graduated from. IV fluids usually were not run on IV pumps, that was saved for things like the intensive care units or for specific drugs on the floor. 30 years ago, they had started using plastic water pitchers and plastic cups and bedpans, same as today.

As they do today, the lights were generally located on the wall behind the patient's bed, and it had a string that the patient could pull to turn them on and off. Semi private rooms usually had one TV in the room, sometimes 2, one for each bed.

They had call bells in the room, one for each patient, just like today. They weren't as fancy as some of them today, but they did the job of working the television and calling to the desk.

If you need more info, ask away. God knows I have spent my career in hospitals.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Sounds close to what I remember from my last hospital stay as a patient right around the mid/late 1980's.

Count on being asked, with thanks!