National Nurses Week is a great time to look back at some of the life-saving innovations created by nurses throughout history.
While the everyday actions of nurses are to be commended and praised, some have gone a step further by inventing tools that have changed the medical professions and made healthcare safer for all.
Here are just a few of the items nurses developed that are used in hospitals, medical facilities, and, in some cases, even in homes around the world.
The crash cart
In 1968, Anita Dorr was a registered nurse working in the emergency room when she noticed how much time was wasted trying to procure all the vital equipment needed during an urgent medical event. She went home and devised a cart with drawers filled with all the necessary items that could be easily rolled out in an emergency. In addition to the crash cart prototype, Dorr went on to launch the Emergency Nurses Association.
Color-coded IV lines
Before Terri Barton-Salinas, RN, and her sister Gail Barton-Hay, RN, developed the idea of color-coded IV lines they were always all made of clear plastic. The fact that all IV lines looked the same increased the chance of medical errors, especially during emergencies when nurses have to reach for medications quickly. After the sisters came up with the idea, they received a patent in 2003 and launched ColorSafe IV Lines in 2011.
Sanitary pads
World War I nurses devised the idea of disposable sanitary pads after using a super absorbent material called cellucotton to treat the injuries of soldiers on the battlefield. After the war ended, Kimberly-Clarke, the company that made cellucotton, learned of the nurses ingenuity and rebranded the product into Kotex sanitary napkins for women.
Disposable liners in baby bottles
While working at Columbia Hospital in Washington, D.C. in the 1940s, nurse Adda May Allen observed how babies in the neonatal unit became exhausted as they sucked on traditional bottles that often formed a vacuum and collapsed the nipple. She realized a bottle with collapsible sides was needed to make it easier for the babies. Allen devised “shellies” made of transparent plastic that could be fit into traditional bottles. After testing them at hospitals, the liners became mass produced and widely available.
