You Know You're an Old(er) Nurse If . . .

Nurses General Nursing

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You know you're an older nurse if:

1. You remember working with nurses who wore caps. :nurse:

2. You remember nurses (and doctors) sitting at the nurses station drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes while charting. :smokin:

3. You remember when charting was done (handwritten) in 3 different colors (black or blue for day shift, green for evening shifts, red for night shift).

4. You remember when IV fluids came only in glass bottles.

5. You remember when breast milk wasn't a biohazard. :redlight:

6. You remember when chest tube setups consisted of glass bottles, rubber stoppers, and tubing.

7. You remember when white polyester uniforms were the standard for nurses.

8. You remember when you'd have given your eye teeth for a comfortable pair of nursing shoes (we haven't always been able to wear athletic shoes).

9. You remember when the hospital's top nurse was the director of nursing and not the chief nursing officer.

10. You remember giving lots of IM shots for pre-ops and pain meds.

What else?

HollyVK (with patient care experience going back to 1972) :gandalf:

starting rn in ontario in 1987 was 15.54/hr

i was spending millions in my head !!!!!!

In some parts of the US, starting pay is about that right now! (Some areas in southern states).

Yes,I graduated as an LPN in 1976 and made 1 1/2 times as much as I had been as a seamstress--a whopping $3.50 an hour,if I remember right. But,it was all relative-nothing cost as much then as it does now.

I also remember using maalox on pressure sores and also sugar was supposed to help it heal.

i still make my bed at home with mitered corners and a toe pleat and pillowcase opening away from the door. OCD I KNOW!!!!!!!! LOL

:roll I still do this too!!!! You know your a diehard nurse when.... :D I wonder if they still teach this stuff in nursing schools anywhere?

Oh my GOD! This is just beautiful! I am truly an old(er) nurse and I absolutely love it! I needed this laugh. And it really was the good ole days.

My mother talks of the days with no air conditioning and shaking down the thermomerters after using them....

I'm not all that old, but still see a few of the things mentioned on here. I think they just did away with the paper NCLEX about 15 years ago?

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

I find it funny that it's the students who now wear the white and the nurses who wear the colors. Back in the days, it was the reverse. We couldn't wait to wear white! :chuckle

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

picnic.JPG

Ah, the original potluck

Trust me...wherever there are nurses there will be food. See anyone you know?! I have no idea what year this was.

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..

Ah, the original potluck

Trust me...wherever there are nurses there will be food. See anyone you know?! I have no idea what year this was.

CUTE! LOL

That's me, looking at the ground, thinking ... I wonder if I called out tonite if anyone would mention me being at the party...

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
That's me, looking at the ground, thinking ... I wonder if I called out tonite if anyone would mention me being at the party...

Sorry Zoe! Didn't mean to get you in any trouble. he,he! BTW Nice cap...looks like a bedpan turned upside down :lol2:

The picture can't be too old. The caps don't have a dust ruffle on them. I had an instructor in nursing school whose cap had the dust ruffle. Now that is old.

Barbara

CUTE! LOL

That's me, looking at the ground, thinking ... I wonder if I called out tonite if anyone would mention me being at the party...

ROTFL! :rotfl: *Dead*

The picture can't be too old. The caps don't have a dust ruffle on them. I had an instructor in nursing school whose cap had the dust ruffle. Now that is old.

Barbara

Ruffle? Like these?

Civilization.ca - One Hundred Years of Nurses' Caps - Evolution of the Nurse's Cap

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