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New exhibition - The Digital Revolution: Nursing in the Age of Technology
From Florence Nightingale as one of the first data scientists to the futuristic machines of early Intensive Care units, digitisation has revolutionised health care, and yet care remains a uniquely human activity.
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In the last 50 years, computers have gone from a rarity to ever-present, while the internet and smartphones have transformed our daily lives. Most of us cannot imagine a world without them.
Today, over 28 million people in the UK use the NHS app, and nurses generate more data than anyone else working in health care.
This exhibition will explore the changes, choices and challenges of the digital revolution in health care. Starting with the avalanche of data gathered in the late-nineteenth century, the display uncovers the crucial role nursing staff played in analysing this information: from manual punched cards to the first computers on the wards in the 1970s. Today’s artificial intelligence (AI) and care robots are yesterday’s science fiction.
Yet, as both history and fiction remind us, there are risks to relying on technology, and care will always be uniquely human. How do we navigate health care in the digital age?
Alongside items from our own collections, the exhibition will feature loans from the Centre for Computing History and the National Robotarium. Visitors will also experience a new audio-visual installation by artist, Rachel Lee Pearl.
You can visit the exhibition at RCN HQ from 16 September 2026 - 2 March 2027.
Book to attend our launch event on the 16th and be among the first to experience this timely display.
