1950s nursing

MrsMommaRN · Dec 20, 2008

loved reading through the pages of posts. it's nice to see this thread revived every now and then.

lpnflorida · Dec 20, 2008

I remember when electroconvulsive therapy was done in a large room on our unit. There were four beds in that room and we would use large fabric portable screens to screen the view of one patient from another. I can not recall the actual year that ECT actually started being done in PAD somehow I think that was in late eighties or early 90,s. Our old time psych dr's would tell of when they use to go to patients homes to do ECT. Yep, they had their own portable ect machines they would take with them.

shodobe · Dec 20, 2008

I remember when electroconvulsive therapy was done in a large room on our unit. There were four beds in that room and we would use large fabric portable screens to screen the view of one patient from another. I can not recall the actual year that ECT actually started being done in PAD somehow I think that was in late eighties or early 90,s. Our old time psych dr's would tell of when they use to go to patients homes to do ECT. Yep, they had their own portable ect machines they would take with them.

I remember doing ECTs up until about 5 years ago in the OR. When I started in the OR, so many years ago, the surgeons would smoke at the scrub sinks while scrubbing for a case! We would then go out and take the cig out of their mouth and place it on the sink edge until they came out. This one Orthopod would do his cases so fast he could finish, go out to the sink and pick his cig up before it went out. Going into the nurses lounge was taking your life and lungs into perilous grounds.

ragingmomster, BSN, MSN, RN · Dec 20, 2008

OMG to most of this stuff.

I graduated from my LPN program in MA in 1991.

Spent the 10 month program in a blue pinafore with white nursing shoes, not sneakers! Two uniforms for the whole year, clinical 4 days a week, one uniform to wash and one to wear and add lots of starch. God forbid your shoes weren't polished before every day of clinical. After the first clinical rotation if you passed you got a cap. Keep it on straight or you get sent home. Hair off the collar, plain elastics to hold it up, nothing decorative or like a scrunchy.

If you did well and passed the second part of the program you got a navy blue stripe to put on your cap corner, we stuck them on with surgilube.

Graduation you had to have a white nursing dress, absolutely had to be a dress, unless you were male then it was a specific pair of trousers and a zip front polyester shirt. We all had a pinning ceremony in addition to graduation, but when I finished my BSN, we skipped the pinning in case someone could not afford the pin.

I remember learning how to test for urine specific gravity in peds with a "hygrometer?" You collected the urine in a graduated cylinder and then spun a glass tube thingy that looked like a thermometer in the urine. When it settled down, you could read the level marked on the glass cylinder for the specific gravity.

An older RN I worked with told us about heating urine first thing in the morning to check for glucose levels, they only checked once a day though, heaven help you if your sugar dropped or swung high later.

My first LTC job we still had metal bedpans, a hopper to rinse and an autoclave to disinfect them.

MIA-RN · Dec 21, 2008

I remember being a very young child in the early 70's and every time I went to the doctor's, the nurse pricked my finger. She would then draw the blood up in a pipette held in her mouth. I remember being scared that she was going to suck out all my blood! They would spin the blood right in the office, to get a white count. They also did throat cultures in the office, and grew them out right there on the agar plates overnight. I remember they would write my phone number on the cover of the plate and call the next morning if it was positive.

RN1982 · Dec 21, 2008

I remember being a very young child in the early 70's and every time I went to the doctor's, the nurse pricked my finger. She would then draw the blood up in a pipette held in her mouth. I remember being scared that she was going to suck out all my blood! quote]
Yikes, guess they weren't big on infection control then.

sam3992 · Dec 31, 2008

I love reading all of these. Thank you all so much for posting!

Grammyphyl · Jan 10, 2009

Thank you all so much for the wonderful (and not so wonderful) memories of nursing in the '50s and '60s. I found this site while searching for background info while writing my "memoirs" . All your comments have certainly sparked other memories, and I'll add them all to my writings.

I graduated from a hospital run diploma nursing school in 1955. We worked the long hours and ran the floors by ourselves as 2nd and 3rd. year students. We had no interns or residents, just supervisors to call, who then gave permission to phone Dr. if needed.We had no disposable anything.Everything was cleaned and resterilized by Central Supply. Everything was as many of you described earlier in this forum. Does anyone remember the scultitus post abd. surgery binders?

I chose to work Communicable Disease as my senior elective so I could get Iron Lung experience. My nursing class had helped the public health nurse and Drs. give the 1st. polio vaccine to the children of our county in 1954, and there were no polio cases at all the next summer. (I took care of kids with diarrhea all summer instead of polio, thank goodness.) I felt that we did a good job and had all kind of experiences to handle. I delivered 2 babies because Dr. didn't get there in time, and had one I thought was a cord presentation, but on closer inspection saw 5 little toes presenting. I kept pt. in trendelenberg position until Dr. finally arrived and delivered viable baby with no after problems.

After I graduated, I married, and started I working in a surgeon's office for 2 years, then OB/nursery for 2 years. I worked occ. parttime after my 3 kids were born, but was out of nursing completely for 18 years. I worked in a family owned pharmacy parttime while kids were in school, and finally in 1980, I decided I had to go back to work due to recession of auto industry. my work in the pharmacy helped me ACE my pharmaceutical test when I applied at the hospital. I could earn more money there than Dr. office, etc.

I read every nursing journal at the public library, and applied at the hospital. Much to my amazement, they hired me, and I took classes for the newly graduated 2yr nurses for a month. The Instructor knew my situation and helped me so much with extra work. Talk about a time warp. Nursing care was the same, but the technology was all new. I studied hard, and was given part-time nights on a pediatric floor that also had orthopedics, med. /surg, geriatrics. I refused to be "floated" to cardiac floors, as I just didn't feel qualified. I worked with a young RN (my daughters age) who was wonderful, and took me under her wing. Between us, we care for up to 15 pts. apiece. We had wonderful, well trained aides (no CNAs yet) I worked on that floor 3 eight hour shifts a week for 5 years, then everything changed. The insurance starting using the DRGS system for ( reimbursement per diagnosis) Patients were shuttled in and out of the hospital before they were well, and came back in with severe complications. The hospital layed off the good aides, and hired people from housekeeping and kitchen who knew nothing at lower wages . It became a nightmare. The hospital had just built a new medical wing, and we were moved into it in Aug. 1985. Instead of a central nurse's station, the desks were along the wall of the the halls with med carts beside them, There was no room for supplies, and we had to run up and down the long hall, looking for the supplies, crash carts, suction, etc. It was the most unorganized place ever. I wrote numerous suggestions for helping "fix the problems", many of which were implemented several years later. But by then, my knees had completely worn out from running the hall to answer lights, and IVs beeping, etc. I was at my desk charting one morning early, with tears running down my face from knee pain and frustation. My favorite Dr. made early rounds, and asked my problem. I told him, and asked if he had any "sit-down" jobs at his office. He said no, but he would keep me in mind. About 2 weeks later, his chief nurse called and offered me a job as telephone/triage nurse for his very busy internal med. practice. Bless his heart, I stayed with him for 17 years, and finally retired at age 70 in 2004.

I told all my kids, If I could live through all that, they could do anything they wanted to. As I look back, I can't believe I lived through it all. But I did, and I'm so glad to have made the choice to try. I missed the hands on care of the hospital, but felt that I really contributed and helped a lot of patients over the phone in my last job. I really miss it. Thank you again for the memories and opportunity to share with you all.

island40 · Jan 11, 2009

Most of the stuff you see on M*A*S*H reruns is correct. I once tried to explain a pulmocare unit to students by using three bottles, stoppers and tubing...:)

Grammyphyl · Jan 14, 2009

Re: the BP cuffs before velcro. Ours were long tapered sleeves that we wrapped around the extremity like a bandage and tucked in the end.

In the 1950's, our BP cuffs looked like the ones today, but had like a metal hook and eye system, with 1 hook and a strip of "eyes" down the cuff, to hook into at the appropriate circumference of the arm, instead of velcro.

Debra ACRN · Jan 15, 2009

OK, this was in the early eighties but I remember doing specific gravity on a one year old twice daily. In order to retrieve the urine we would take a wet disposible diaper and peel off the first layer. Then we would put the some of the inside, wet part into a 50 cc syringe and squeeze out the urine. We then did the specific gravity test in the dirty utility. Those were the days!

RN DREAMiN · Jun 12, 2009

Love this! Thank you!