[paddlelady]

I trained in the late 60's. We passed food trays to the patients. We kept cataract patients a full 10 dys on bedrest and had to set up their trays with the food at clock position. We instructed a patient to where their juice was on the tray. We also collected the trays. WE did our own physical therapy. Took all the vital signs, even emptied the trash if we had too. We gave the good old hospital massage and patients love the touch.
Blood came in bottles scarey esp if you dropped one. Meds had to be calculated most of the time no unidoses.
I worked trauma for awhile and we had to do kidney dialysis using a portable bath tub this was at a county hospital. But things were fun the interns, residents and nurses did work as a team at the country but the private hospitals the nurse doctor relationship was strained and sometimes condescending. The equippment was arcaic and even the chest tubes drained into bottles. We sometimes worked all 3 shifts in one week and only had one weekend off per month and only made 3.05 an hour. Benefits were terrible. Not even sure why I went into nursing. Todays salaries are amazing in comparsion to the late 60 to even the 80's. I could go on and on about the differences. But one thing that remains the same is the quest to do the best patient care with excellent outcomes no matter what the salary.

[canoehead]

In the 80's we were trained in physical and respiratory therapy treatments and expected to provide both. The physical therapist saw people as outpatients, and the nurses did the treatments in hospital. We were just starting to hear about respiratory therapy, and they were confined to the ICU vents. Central lines were brand new, and also only in the ICU setting. We actually had a few pumps outside of ICU- maybe five for a 150 bed hospital, and they were used almost exclusively for chemo or children. Funny, now that I think about it I don't remember any child sick enough for continuous IVF during the month I spent in pediatrics. These days if they don't need an IV they don't need a hospital bed. We had lots of kids with vomiting and diarrhea on clears, and several boarding kids that would be in a nursing home or foster care now. Preop, and postop, I remember only IM meds and an IV until they woke enough to drink. Hmmmmmm. After I graduated I worked in an exclusively pediatric hospital, so we had lots of IV's and pumps there, but only one central line for the first year- and it clotted off on my first day of orientation. I had sooo much to learn, I was with an LPN for the first few days, and thought I'd never catch on and be as knowledgeable as she was.

Re gloves- I didn't see my first Kleenex box of gloves until 1991, for an AIDS patient. Diarrhea, and vomiting were still gloveless cleanups unless they were visibly stained with blood. I actually thought about stealing a housekeeper's elbow high rubber gloves as a new grad when I was totally grossed out by a poop blowout. BAD NURSE!

[aknottedyarn]

I love this thread. I laughed so hard reading some of the things I remember so well.

Do you remember the clysis? I hated them when I was an aide. I was so afraid the needle would fall out.
People were hospitalized for 6 weeks following a heart attack. If that did not kill them, they went home weaker than when they had the MI.
T&As were common. Ice cream was the drug of choice after surgery. It still is my drug of choice 50+ years later. Wonder if they started my addiction for this?

[Grace Oz]

T&As were common. Ice cream was the drug of choice after surgery. It still is my drug of choice 50+ years later. Wonder if they started my addiction for this?

Haha! This just proves healthcare was/is the same across the globe! lol Here in Oz it used to be BOTH ice-cream AND jelly! The jelly couldn't be red of course, for obvious reasons!