Nursing the old fashioned way

Nurses General Nursing

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Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN

1 Article; 20,908 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Oh that spray......smelled like bubble gum! It was supposed to help with granulacytosis! I remember trying the bedsheet to the bed in an attempt to keep confused naked patients cevered. I had a nurse manager who carried shoe polish in her pocket and would pull it out and give it to you to clean your shoes. Some ED's still do a banana bag x1 for heavily intoxicated patients. How about those hand mitts with wrist restraints for that creative escape artist!

Awe.....the days of the precordial thump! I have actually seen it work a few times. I remember one night after work we all went out (in white head to toe!) we walked into this local bar and a guy grabbed his chest and fell off the bar stool. A nurse I was with jumped on him and gave him a precordial thump to which he replied "OUCH" and sat up.......she promptly puched him in the face :lol2: I'll bet he never pulled that stunt again!:lol2: Remember the first ACLS..........what a torture! One and two man perfect strip was required and mega code was going before the Spanish inqusition!

I remember having to manually zero and calibrate with a mercury sphymomanometer! I remember cardiac outputs took at least 2 people and ICED! saline and .doing the calculations without the benefit of a calculator let alone no computers. Unit secretaries we angels! and everything was their job. I remember "slow codes" because there was no such thing as DNR. We mixed everything ourselves.

I also remember blue green urine from too much methylene blue in the tube feedings.

AWE the good ole days.............but we really knew our patients.

Old.Timer

338 Posts

This is a fun read!

Does anyone remember monitoring IV infusions by placing a sticky label along the length of the glass IV bottle marking hourly times to correspond with the amount of fluid that should be infused by that specific time?

Scarlette Wings

358 Posts

Specializes in M/S, ICU, ICP.
this is a fun read!

does anyone remember monitoring iv infusions by placing a sticky label along the length of the glass iv bottle marking hourly times to correspond with the amount of fluid that should be infused by that specific time?

lol. oh my heavens yes. and i remember having to lay on the floor on my belly to look at the chest tube bottles and be able to read them accurately for output. same piece of tape with the times and all used there as on the iv bottles.

blue urine? yep. i remember no one was ever allowed red jello in case they vomited so you "could see if it was blood or not." of course the jello was so tough and gummy you could have bounced it off the floor.

we used to clear blocked ng tubes with everything from coke-cola to my favorite mixture, that was half hot coffee and half cranberry juice. speaking of cranberry juice, everyone with foleys or tube feeds got a glass of that daily for their bladders to keep down infections. i personally think it really did help.

esme12, lord what i would have given to see that guy in the floor that yelled chest pain and fell out. rotflmao.

i have precordial thumped a few to hear them holler at me for it too. think one of the weirdest things i have done was when a doc ordered us to use a dental contraption to do irrigations with pressure on a decub that needed "pressure washing for debridement."

insulin was simple back then, you had regular and long acting, period. can't remember the name of the long acting one now. i do remember that anyone having any surgery was in patient for up to 2 weeks and then they didn't have pt come work with them, nurses got them up and walked them. imagine after being flat in the bed for 2 weeks? geesh. then the doctor had to order when the patient could get out of bed. first day let them sit up. second day dangle on the side of the bed. day 3 advance to standing and so on.

lol. all lady partsl births were in patient 3-5 days and c sections about 2 weeks. wrapped the breasts tight with a binder to keep the milk from coming in. darn that had to be uncomfortable!

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN

3,734 Posts

Love this thread! I've only been an nurse since 96 and oh how things have changed in LTC.

Most of the residents had demtian, contractures, restraints, full side rails, bed sores, foley or were inct, impactions were very common.....

Now LTCs have younger, sicker folks, no restraints, no side rails, very few foleys or decubs and rarely a contracture. IVs galore...TPN, central lines and pics with ton's of IV abtx, cardiac rehab, complex wound care, pain management......More diabetics and obesity too.

j621d

223 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care, Nsg QA.
What was the rationale here?

I think the rational was that the ice would be too great a shock to the heart or the body, and would be harmful to the patient. I didn't question it, as I was a 17 year old nurses aide. It didn't make sense to me and I would "sneak" a little ice into the water pitcher. If you live in Florida you know that the "cold" water from the tap is not cold at all, rather it is somewhat warm and you need some ice to cool it down! This was back in the mid 1970s.

onetiredmomma

295 Posts

Logrolling back surgery pts for a week....Gall Bladder pts always had a foley, NG, T-tube, IV, oxygen......pain meds were all IM.....bunionectomy pts with the foot of the bed gatched to elevate their feet would often faint first time they sat up and put their feet down to go to the bathroom.....Sippy diet for stomach ulcers: basin of ice water at the bedside with a carton of half and half and they were supposed to drink an ounce an hour (or something like that)....Peds units that didn't allow any visitors in the rooms, parents had to stand in the doorway and try to soothe their sobbing kiddos.....Peds pts that got a med called Loridine by injection so much it oozed out previous injection sites in their poor lil bottoms!!

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN

1 Article; 20,908 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

:) "sippy one sippy two" diet something every hour to protect the stomach linning by coating it:rolleyes: foot cradles and chest tube strippers, wrapping the ENTIRE tubing and bag with foil to protect nipride from light. I remember the first time I hung nitro. It was called TRIDIL and you had to use the special TRIDIL tubing.......we were terrified if we dropped it it would explode or something horrible we were sure would happen.

Never change an initial surgical dressing reinforce it only. Demerol and atropine for pre ops. pre medicating for Amphotericin B. Minimize the usage of gloves because it made the patient feel ailenated......theraputic touch was all the rage. I remember one nurse asking me if I was afraid to "get a little poop on you Honey?" when I wanted some with a particularly bloodied patient in the ED. You NEVER wore gloves to start IV's......:o

Specializes in FNP.

I have an ancient green glass urinal that I keep fresh flowers in on my desk, lol.

Specializes in Pedatrics, Child Protection.

Things have changed since 1995!

Our 3 H Enema was a 5 H---add "hold it till it hurts" to the end!

Adding the timing tape along the IV bag....absolutely!

Nursing diagnosis and resolving nursing problems

Visiting hours from 2-4pm and 6-8pm

I'm sure there are more, but so many have been mentioned in earlier posts. I sit nodding my head to most of these. Thanks for the smiles :D

sevensonnets

975 Posts

You could come in the hospital and stay as long as you liked if you claimed back pain. Pelvic traction, Demerol 100mg and Phenergan 50mg q 3-4 hrs. PRN and don't be 3 minutes late. Some of the old orthos also ordered Valium as a muscle relaxant. Lots of patients could still get up and walk around after all of the above looking for the coffee pot. One orthopedic surgeon kept his back fusions flat in the bed for 4 weeks straight---you had to feed them, give them bed baths, and log roll for 4 weeks! Another good way to get into the hospital for a little R&R was to complain of a sore throat. Yep. One of our old ENT's ordered saline gargles q 4 hrs. performed by the nurse, never the patient, with this grotesque metal container and a rubber tubing. You didn't dare get caught allowing the patient to hold the tubing himself. We also had husband and wives who'd come in for colonoscopies and stay a week just because they could.

JessicRN

470 Posts

lets see

honey to vulvectomy pt's wounds

glass needle syringes and metal needle that were resterilized

glass iv bottles

moms stayed 3 days after lady partsl delivery and 5 days for C section babies always slept in the nursery during the night and came out only to breastfeed

having to remain flat on back 24 hrs after Lumbar puncture or cataract surgery

Intraperitoneal dialysis manually

Gastric lavage for overdoses with ewalds and not a closed system

iced normal saline lavages for GI bleeds.

obtaining sputum culture by using your mouth as the suction (stills makes me gag when i think of it)

giving every patient a back rub at bedtime usually with alcohol.

12:1 pt load on days 20;1 on nights did not matter if getting dialysis or chemo.

NO paperwork except about 4 lines in the ED paperwork with vital signs.

SOAP charting

med cards for every medication.

multidose vials and containers for every medication no single doses.

medications outside pts rooms in unlocked drawers

preparing your own chemo

45 minute tubing changes on central lines as no extension tubing

NO IMED PUMPS

only interns and residents and students started IV's pts always being connected to IV 's and being KVO. Manually calculating drips on all IV fluids you used buretrols for critical meds.

RNA's CNA's ???? no such thing. PRIMARY CARE NURSING (you were assigned to 20 patients, if they were admitted you were totally responsible for their care every time (you did their care plan))

lady partsl fungal suppositories to be sucked on for stomatitis from chemo.

Specializes in Hospice, ONC, Tele, Med Surg, Endo/Output.
Wow........regression........

I remember metal bedpans and urinals......med carts and non unit dose meds.....tube feedings with methylene blue and kaopectate.....I rememeber treating acute MI's with sublingual nitro and a prayer.....Oh and rotating tourniquets for CHF/PE.

Sun lamps for bedsores.....Geri chairs and wrist restraints.......insulin coverage for urine glucose spillage 1+,2+,3+.4+ (now that's scary) and red rubber NG tubes! :nurse:

Those metal bedpans are gorgeous. Where can i buy one.

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