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.
-
Twenty One Pilots, Zac Brown Band to headline Indy's March Madness Fest
Twenty One Pilots, Zac Brown Band and Megan Moroney will headline the three-day event. Here's the schedule:
2 dead after apparent tornado tears through northwest Indiana
Two people are dead after officials say a tornado ripped through northwest Indiana Tuesday night and left multiple homes damaged.
Zionsville's Main Street Momentum Project aims to ease traffic, preserve charm
Zionsville is upgrading key intersections and streets downtown, including a new roundabout, crosswalks and one-way street changes.
FBI arrests suspect at Indianapolis International Airport
A suspect was placed under arrest by the FBI at the Indianapolis International Airport on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the FBI Indianapolis said.