Let's play I Remember When.....

Too much fun not to join in on this one...

I remember when Tagamet came out, the first h2 blocker and it revolutionized ulcer care.
I remember the smell of ether used by an old doc when I was in nursing school and it made me sick.
I remember a nurse 10 years older than me bragging how she had worked in the first ICU in the state (that would have been the '60's).
I remember paraldehyde and how it would melt styrofoam cups. And how it stank!
I remember when having a central line on a general med floor was considered rare and somewhat cool.
I remember an older doc treating a woman's fingertip frostbite with [purple] potassium permanaganate and writing an order for us to hold her cigarettes to smoke. Even back then, "yeah right..."
I remember learning in school that Guillian-Barre was a rare syndrome that we would never see and then seeing a handful of cases that one winter when it was influenza vaccine related.
I remember nurses telling me that originally doctors could only defibrillate. They would call the doc for a pt in vfib, charge the paddles, he would run into the room (from his office or home at times) and defib the patient.
I remember elaborate pre-op ortho preps (shave, paint with betadine, wrap with sterile dressings) the night before and if there was too many razor nicks, the ortho would cancel the surgery.

As Billy Joel sings, "...and the good old days weren't always good..." but I think some of the most poignant memories point to loss of caring as something nurses have time to do, because their is no reimbursement code for caring, is there....

Happy Holidays and thanks for the memories.

I remember testing urines for specific gravity by spinning the weighted glass rod. Testing for acetone in the urine with a little blue fizzy tablet. Rounds and "Grand Rounds". We staffed in "teams". RN was the teamleader and did the IV stuff, notes and teaching, LPN passed the meds and did simple drssing changes-yep, betadine and sugar paste and heatlamp. CNA made beds and gave baths. We usually had about 10=12 patients for our team. I learned how to knit and crochet after all the work was done. I also remember a lovely elderly couple who checked in every winter "for a rest"...they actually changed their address at the post office to the hospital. Wonder how team nursing would work nowadays?

I remember my white uniform being so stiffly starched that you could stand it up in the corner all by itself! Part of the appropriate uniform was a girdle to provide back support. How about metal enema buckets to which you attached rubber tubing? Milk and molasses enemas? Using sugar and orange peal on decubitus. Forceps kept in zephren and used to remove sterile 4x4's from glass jars in which they had been sterilized. The forceps were sent to CS once a week for sterilization and the zephrin was changed we now knows it grows EVERYTHING!). Putting betadine ointment around the urinary meatus as part of the Am foley care (ouch, that stuff stings!!!) Tap bells at the bedside (no electric nurse bell here - when you heard the bell you listened carefully in hope you could at least tell which direction it came from and then you walked the hall until you narrowed down the room - and then you usually had to go get something for the patient - another trip down that ever lengthing hall!). Darvocet, Darvon, Talwin, and Valium stocked in the medication room in stock bottles of several hundred tablets and no count! Headache: just take a Darvon or Darvocet. Got some aches or pains: grab a handfull for use at home! Why there were not more addicts among nurses amazes me! Drawing Demerol and Morphine out of multidose vials into glass syringes and "guestimating" how much remained at end of shift count. Dissolving codiene tablets in sterile water to give injections. All medications came in stock bottles you poured into little paper cups and placed on a tray on top of the medicine card. I remember a nurse being asked by a patient to hand something to her and she simply forgot she was holding the medicine tray and dropped the whole thing - pills and liquids ran everywhere! But I would give anything to go back to those days. You knew more about your patient than just their name and diagnosis. You got to fluff, puff and actually relieve their anxiety and pain - with out PILLS. You could really nurse, just like old Flo meant nursing to be, not just pushing buttons on a computer writing things about the patient that you really did not do or observe for yourself because you are too busy meeting the paper requirements to actually care for the patient, relieve pain with a back rub, or walk down the hall holding their hand, put their feet in warm water to soak and then give them a foot rub, in short: to care and nurse.

I guess I'm still living in the dark ages. When I started my computer charting last night (agency nurse here), the charge remarked that it was 6pm, what had I been doing. They all laughed when I said I'd been taking care of patients!

I love this!!! I remember all of the above.
Yes, we dissolved morphine tablets to create the injectable form. We routinely irrigated foley caths with potassium permanganate b.i.d. too. Remember that purple stuff?

Oh my, what memories. LOL. Glass IV bottles were really a trip when I was working med/surg in a state mental institution-- they also did lobotomy there.

When the wards were not too, too bad on nights in one hospital they would send us down to count pills and put them in prelabeled containers for the pharmacy (try that now).

I remember the first "saline lock" and disposable syringe and needle I ever saw. And of course there were absolutely NO respiratory therapists.

My goodness, couldn't we just go on and on forever. Thanks for posting these replies, it has made my night.

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Sheryl
If you enjoy word puzzles come visit me at www.CrosswordsForNurses.com

Thank you all so much for this! I really enjoyed reading it and vaguely remember a few things like the MOM and sugar and wounds from my earliest CNA days! I have only been in nursing for 13 years and only 6 of those as an RN but reading this inspired me and I posted about you and other peers sharing these wonderful memories and stories with the rest of the world (in the form of a Chicken Soup for the Nurses Soul book) I think it would be great for us and for the "cause" (improving patient care). It is thanks to you all that we have the wonderful heritage that we are now fighting to maintain!

I am an RN since 87 but a CNA since 79....The thing that was most different then was LTC...I distinctly remember older patients who RETIRED to nursing homes; nothing physically wrong, that was their retirement plan. They'd be on the same wing as people with dementia or terminal illnesses. When I was a CNA back then I remember the RNs being forced to run clysis bottles on terminal patients and all muttering "this is so stupid".

For my RN career, I remember all RN staffs in acute care, having a unit clerk and supervisor on nights as well as a respiratory therapist & pharmacy tech. Those things sure vanished in the hospitals I know!

THIS TOPIC MADE ME SMILE! I REMEMBER BEING PAID 5.27/HR IN 1978. I FLOATED OUT OF THE NURSING OFFICE ON NOCS TO ALL AREAS OF THE HOSP EVEN ICU AND I HADN'T TAKEN MY BOARDS YET. I REMEMBER GETTING YOUR ACTUAL SCORE ON YOUR NURSING BOARDS NOT JUST A PASS/FAIL. I CAN REMEMBER HAVING TO GIVE UP A PARTICULAR CHAIR TO A CERTAIN DR. WHENEVER HE MADE ROUNDS AND YOU HAD BETTER MADE SURE HE DID NOT HAVE TO SPEAK FOR IT! I REMEMBER THE FEAR I HAD OF THE CHARGE NURSES. I REMEMBER THE TIME I HAD TO SPEND WITH MY PATIENTS. I STILL THINK ABOUT THE MEALS AND BREAKS I HAD. TIME AND PLENTY OF IT - THAT I MISS THE MOST. THANKS FOR THE STROLL DOWN THAT LANE.

I remember
1.When a doctor told me it actually told me to obtain an accurate temperature the glass thermometer had to be left in 8 minutes. Even then I laughed.
2. When we mixed what was similiar to TPN on the floors. It said we had to mix it under a hood even then. The hood, you ask.....a sheet attached to a upper cupboard the reached the floor. You would get under the sheet and mix the soultion.
3. When we were in the Nursery we would let newborns suck on our knuckles. Yuck.
4. When we were in nursing school we had a cerfew-2230 hrs every night with two late passes or overnight passes every two weeks. And a house mother that made sure we were tucked away in our beds.
5. When you were only allowed to wear you nursing uniform always dresses and you couldn't have your knees showing.