INDIANAPOLIS — After five decades, Cheryl Hansell says nursing is "light years different," but one thing has stayed the same — the letter she wrote as a graduating senior in the 1972 IU School of Nursing Class.
On Friday, IU nursing faculty, staff, students and alumni unveiled what was inside the 1972 time capsule, which was located in the entryway of the School of Nursing Building at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis.
Included in the time capsule was Hansell's letter projecting what IU nursing would be like in 2022.
"I think the technology has changed everything. It's gone from handwritten paper, if you copied it it was carbon paper. There were no Xerox machines," Hansell said. "The whole concept of the nurse has changed ... nurses have so much more involvement in patient care now."
Hansell says when she started, nurses didn't have stethoscopes and couldn't draw blood or start IVs. She went on to have a 30 year nursing career before retiring.
Other items in the time capsule included:
- A nursing cap and pin
- Newspaper clippings about the school
- Photographs of nursing students in their uniforms
- School newsletters and other announcements
"I think over the next 50 years we are going to see some remarkable things that create an impact to patients, to populations [and] to healthcare," Robin Newhouse, dean of the IU School of Nursing, said. "Nurses are important to the community because they are really the backbone of the healthcare system."
Contents of the time capsule will be managed and preserved by IU archivists.
-
Damages to college athletes varies from dollars to millions under settlement
Thousands of former college athletes will be eligible for payments ranging from a few dollars to more than a million under the $2.78 billion antitrust settlement agreed to by the NCAABoar's Head deli meat recalled over possible listeria contamination
Popular Boar's Head deli meats face a recall after health officials warned of possible listeria contamination in various products.IMPD officer injured in shooting on Indy's far east side
IMPD is investigating after an officer was shot on the far east side of Indianapolis on Friday evening.AI Hackathon hopes to encourage kids to go into the tech field
At the hackathon, local high school students leaned skill that could lead them to career in advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, and data science.