Day 11, Old Operating Theatre and Florence Nightingale Museum

Good Afternoon to you all at home!  I hope you are having a wonderful day today and that you are still enjoying reading my blogs.  Today was a typical class day, but we did go into Grantham for class to complete health surveys.  We also had a speaker come from Lincolnshire to talk to us about NHS and the health care reform in the United States.  That was pretty cool, but I got a lot of homework to get done in the next few days.  My study break today will be telling you about the museums I went to in London, so I hope you enjoy! :)

The door to the museum- creepy!

On Friday, we started our day at the Old Operating Theatre, which is part of St. Bart's hospital in London.  It is located near London Bridge and the Thames river.  It is one of the oldest buildings in London- we had to walk up a 92 step spiral staircase to even get into the museum!!  Once upstairs with all of our nursing majors, we were able to walk around and look at all of the artifacts.  I will warn you- some are a little gross, but they were seriously too cool to not take a picture.  

Obstetric tools- OUCH!

One of the first things that I wanted to look at was the obstetrics equipment that was used in the 1800s.  At this point in time, there weren't female doctors and they were all male.  Pain medication and anesthesia did not exist.  You could imagine a completely drug free childbirth, but could you imagine a childbirth inside your home with people unsure of what to do?  Here are some of the pictures of tools that they developed to "help" labor.  I'm not sure if this would help or kill me yet....

Me standing in the operating theatre

Patients were held down to the table whenever they had to get an amputation.  This was especially common in the "operating theatre", which is where doctors would line up around a banister and watch a doctor perform surgery on a patient.  There was no such thing as a sterile field, and doctors used the same bandages on patients (they were washed in water only of course).  

Tools that the doctors used in the 1800s

Doctors also had one coat to wear when they were operating.  Therefore, when patients saw the coat was stiff and full of old blood, they would know it was a good doctor.  If the jacket was white...well, they might have just ran back out the door to die from infection instead.  All in all, I think this museum was INCREDIBLE!  I have so many more pictures on facebook, but if you would like for me to post them, just shoot me an email and I can send them to you. :)


At the Florence Nightingale museum, we (when I say we, I mean the nursing students- there were 12 of us who traveled around together on that Friday) were able to explore Florence's life and how she impacted nursing.  She was known as the "Lady with the Lamp" and she also started the education of nurses.  I really look to her as an example of what a nurse should be because she was wholesome, compassionate, and giving of her life.  She even said on a certain day that God spoke to her to become a nurse.  How cool is that?

At this specific museum, I really enjoyed all of the pictures of healthcare that created a border around the room.  Instead of the pictures moving by year, they were all clumped together and connecting different areas of practice.  I also really enjoyed just learning more about Florence Nightingale in general.  Without her, I wouldn't be in nursing school today.  

Well, that's all I have for now- I will continue on tomorrow (hopefully!) about my visit to the Tower of London and also about meeting my meet-a-family tomorrow night for the first time! 
Cheerio!
Taylor <3