Only Crusty Old Bats will remember..

Nurses General Nursing

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So, I really need a fun thread right now. We've done similar things before and it's always fun.

so, things Crusty Old Bats(COB) remember that new nurses today will not.

1. The clunk your uniform makes when you drop it in the laundry hamper and you realize you came home with the narcotic keys.

2. The splat the over full paper chart makes when you drop it on the floor. Papers everywhere. 15 mins getting everything back together.

3. The smell of the smoking lounge .

4. Nurse and Docs smoking at the Nsg Station.

5. Trying to match the colour of the urine in the test tube to determine the sugar level.

+1? +2? Which one?

OK my fellow COBs. Jump in!

Tincture of benzoin for staple/suture removal.

Fully and and luxiously stocked supply cabinets for every patient room. Keri Lotion bottles.

Patients in their pink frilly night gowns. Cosmetic bags in the bathroom counter.

Candy strippers.

Women's auxiliary with carts full of magazines and treats.

Gift shops that would rival a souvenoir shop on Main St in Disneyland.

White stockings.

Flowers on every overbed table and window sill.

Nuns who were shrewd business women.

It was all pretty awesome actually.

Specializes in Med/Surg, LTACH, LTC, Home Health.

Shift report was done between the two charge nurses, with the rest of us standing around the fiberglass casing of the nurses desk listening in. Afterwards, the charge tore off the rooms to divide the assignments. By the way, 'room' used to be one of the five rights.

Under NO circumstances were we EVER allowed to speak directly to the doctor. That was the charge nurse's job and you better believe she ripped you a new one if she found out that you had spoken with HIM (no female doctors).

We also had male orderlies assigned to male patients only.

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned glass IV bottles.

Having to adjust IV flow rates using a roller clamp & your watch.

I remember those; antibiotics came in those. They were phasing them out when I entered nursing (1997)

Lumbar laminectomies; patients being admitted the night before their surgery; Librium being widely used for alcohol withdrawal/DT's; blue dye; potassium chloride vials on med-surg units.

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Candy "strippers"? Sign me up!

Specializes in Adult MICU/SICU.

I had a 90 y.o. nurse who said in nursing school her duties were sharpening the needles.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
Lumbar laminectomies

??

I just had one 3 years ago.

Specializes in Gerontology.

Cholecystectomies stayed in hospital for at least a week, sometimes two.

the big bottles of stock drugs, Tylenol, Lasix, you name it. That med room was a gold mine of drugs!

Specializes in Med./Surg., Diabetes, Med. ICU, home hea.

"Thanks for the memories" Wow, really brings me back (other than smoking @ the nursing stations and not being able to speak directly to physicians). One of my fondest memories (so as not to submit a duplicate) was during nursing school, 1st pediatric rotation, reconstituting an antibiotic. 70+ year old instructor (must have stood 5' 2") waddling up and slapping me across the face for using my thumb to flip off the top of a plastic saline (or sterile H2O) reconstitution solution into the garbage can (zing! Bounced around in there like a hockey puck before coming to rest) with a strict admonition to NEVER do that again! I was 6' 1", around 225 lbs. and buffed; I recall a brief notion of negasonic destruction, then just laughed. That was her last semester.

We kept cocaine in the ER narc cabinet for nosebleed emergencies.

1. Narcotics keys, and the pain of determining the exact volume of the liquid roxicet bottle each count. Plus waiting to go home until the count was correct.

2. Using a manual cuff for BPs. I still loathe automatic cuffs with a passion.

3. Gravity drips and pressure bags for boluses.

4. Heat lamps applied to fresh postpartum bottoms.

5. Cloth diapers on babies in the nursery (yes really).

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
We kept cocaine in the ER narc cabinet for nosebleed emergencies.

We still use cocaine in the OR where I work for nasal surgeries.

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