Infusion pumps, dialysis machines, antibiotics, heart valves, MRI scanners, even hand washing stations would be new ideas. However, the changes that would surprise the nurse and surgeon are all changes to technology. Clinicians would still be in denial, lawyers would still be hovering, and the delay and deny culture would be no surprise. If our two time-travellers were able to attend a post-mortem and listen in on a discussion of human error, very little would seem novel. They might be disappointed in our treatment particularly of old people, but I don’t think it would surprise them. Patients treated as helpless, stripped of their clothes and possessions, lying in beds and almost completely ignorant of their illness. Pluck a nurse and surgeon out of the nineteenth century and transport them into a modern 21 st century hospital and it would be a thoroughly recognizable place, with the same hierarchies and strict cultures.
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