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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, May 10, 2012 · 8 By Nathan Howes SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Old-school nurses trained to put patient first "It's been a learning experience for us all along the way." That's how Kathy Burton and Dorothy Jones describe 40 years of working at OakvilleTrafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH) as Registered Nurses (RN). They retired from work, or at least full-time employment, earlier this year. "We're doing more things today than we've ever done before. You couldn't take what you learned 40 years ago and put it into effect now," said Burton. Starting in the early 1970s, Burton, 65, and Jones, 64, spent most of their years working in the pediatrics department, but also crosstrained to other departments such as maternity. A lot of the training was "learn as you go," they said. Burton originally wanted to be a history teacher, but since her mother was a nurse, she was told to follow in her mom's footsteps. It worked out well for Burton though -- she ended up doing some teaching with new nurses, more and more as her career progressed. "When we were originally new grads, there (was) no teaching involved," said Burton. "You couldn't even tell a patient what their temperature was, whereas now you do an awful lot of ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER / @halton_photog bedside manner: Dorothy Jones and Kathy Burton are paediatric nurses at OTMH who teaching in all different areas. "I'm glad I became a nurse," she said. In Jones' family, her mother and sisters were teachers, but not all of them liked the career. "My mother decided teaching was not going to be for me, so she thought I should be a nurse. I followed her guidance and it has worked out have retired from full-time employment after 40 years on the job. Here, they attend to Patrick Henry. great," said Jones. When these two retired RNs first started at OTMH, a nurse's responsibilities were varied -- daily tasks included back rubs, foot and hand care for older patients and making beds. Nurses were more "hands-on" back then, Burton said. "There was just so much hands-on care with the patients that we used to do, but don't do now," said Burton. Equipment has changed considerably, too. When Jones and Burton were young nurses, the hospital was using glass bottles for the intravenous because there was a fear bags weren't sanitary enough, Jones said. "Every once in a while you would drop them and make a big mess on the floor," said Jones. "Some of the stuff we have now wasn't even thought of then." A nurse's uniform, too, has gone through a transformation -- whereas before nurses wore a cap and a white uniform, now a nurse's uniform is "whatever you feel like putting on," Burton said. "I went into training in 1964 and that was when skirts were very, very short. We had our aprons measured from the ground to make sure they were an appropriate length, which was halfway down our leg," said Burton. Technology has come a long way as well since the 1970s, and has played a vital role in shaping the nursing profession. The inclusion of monitoring devices has allowed nurses to keep an eye on a patient while taking care of others, thereby reducing the time spent at the bedside of each patient. Computers have significantly impacted the profession -- including the storage of patient records, access to health-related information See National page 13