You know you're Old School when...

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  • Specializes in A and E, Medicine, Surgery.

You are reading page 10 of You know you're Old School when...

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..

Ah yes. We had to autoclave syringes, and anything else that needed to be sterilized back then. We also had to wear white stockings with our white dresses and white shoes. Exam gloves were only used in the OR because diseases like AIDS, etc. TB was common, and having one's tonsils removed was too. Nurses also wore cloth face masks for the prevention of infection, and they were able to take time to go pee.

sunrock

197 Posts

Specializes in Medical surgical.

When we had to wash the thermometers. Or you ask where is the heating lamp, and tape a buttocks to the side rails, cleanse with normal saline , NO WOUND NURSE HERE, it was cost effectivve

nursedora

105 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surge, Geriatrics(LTC), Pediatricts,.

Yes, to you younguns' there was a time when we didn't wear gloves, and we did it all, poop, vomit, blood, everything. Simply washed our hands good before and after with hot water and soap. It was a part of Nursing care. You just did it. Are "Tipple H enemas" still given? And nursing bedside prep for OR was to shave everything from the chin to the toes, and there better not be one single hair on the body, else the surgeon will have a keniption! Does anyone remember the "burn care" after using the glass suction cups to "pop" a cyst? And how about the suction cups for the EKG monitor!? The pt had to lay perfectly still for the duration else the cup would loose it's suction and you'd have to start all over again. And glass suction jars, had to be washed with clorox water at the end of each shift. We didn't have the fancy disposable units that hook on the wall, we had what we referd affectionately to as "R2D2" suction machine. And yes, that was part of nursing duties, to wash the suction jar you used yourself. It wasn't sent to central for someone else to do it.

To the one with the bad Hospice experience. I feel for you. You got the slap in the face right off. I can see attitude like this in the nursing home where you have 40, 48, or more residents to pass medications to, but Hospice? Their mission statement is to give that personal care in the final days of ones life, make them comfortable.

McMama76

2 Posts

loving this thread because my kids don't want to hear about it anymore (especially the one graduating with her bsn in may) this is my first and probably last post, so hang on...it's a long one.

i remember.....

- the physicians always wore suits when they came to floor, except the surgeons (my first week on the job i made rounds with several ministers before i realized they weren't "super religious doctors" and i almost called security the first time a shrink in street clothes came behind the desk and grabbed a chart)...

- the only iv pumps in the hospital were in l&d for pit and in icu. afterall, we had paper strips to mark and watches with second hands....

- what's a microwave?? never send out for a chili burger - when you got time to eat it ....yuk, you couldn't....

- every unit had to buy their own coffee and when the prices skyrocketed in the 70's, we sure didn't appreciate the docs who "helped themselves" while they were charting (only one ever put a dime in the "coffee money" can)...

- serving an "aperitif" before supper to stimulate appetites, "a can of beer post-op' to the male hemorrhoidectomy pts to help them void, having a blender and a bar guide in the med room because one of the ortho surgeons insisted there was nothing better for pain than "a good stiff drink" (had my good baptist mother known all this, she'd have made me quit!)..

- getting dirty looks and worse trying to remove that heavy white adhesive tape (sticks tighter than duct tape) surgery always secured their ivs with....

- wrestling those big glass irrigation bottles on turp pts (who i think secretly enjoyed the show)...

- the (open - there was no other kind) chole's that stayed no less than two weeks with their messy, messy yellow dressing changes and having to advance their penrose drains 1-2" every day (what gloves?) ....

- filling the big shiny silver sitz bath with hot water in the in the hopper room, pushing it to the end of the hall, where, upon arrival, the water was lukewarm and half gone. then getting the mop....

- literally digging out carotid endarterectomy sutures the pt's beard and neck had grown over because the surgeon forgot to write an order to remove them....

-speaking of endarterectomies - now every procedure has abbreviations...but we had to know how to spell....

- (personally) sitting in the community shower in post partum on the one wooden chair everyone sat on and i don't know if it was ever disinfected because, well after all, it was in the shower...

-the night super calling you at the end of a 16 hour "double", begging you to "please stay another 8 for overtime"

yep, glad to have "been there and done that" and to have made it all the way to electronic medical records, rac surveys and whatever other blessings yet in store. i love nursing.

iNurseUK, RN

348 Posts

Specializes in Plastics. General Surgery. ITU. Oncology.

You start to shake a digital thermometer prior to inserting it into the intended orifice.

nursedora

105 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surge, Geriatrics(LTC), Pediatricts,.

On the glass thermometers, how many of us would hit them on the side rail when shaking them down? I don't have enough fingers and toes to count how many I had broken, and how many mercury clean up spill kits I had to secure from the Nursing supervisor! And bedsides had to be very tidy! Very little personal belongings in the pt unit, as the table was needed for the sterilizing cup for the thermometer, drinking cup and water carafe. I went down memory lane with some of the nurses I work with today, out of 4 of us, three of us remembered everything we chatted about here, while the fourth in our group was mesmerized by what we went threw in the "good ol' days!" It was a fun day!

DoGoodThenGo

4,129 Posts

*Wow*! How the practice has changed, even within the last twenty years!

Don't have much to add to the other excellent posts.

Bed making was part of Med/Surg I at nursing schools, and one was graded on (and expected to know backwards and forwards as a RN), making all three types of beds. Pillow slips had to have their openings face *AWAY* from the door.

Chux? No such thing! One used "draw sheets" and if lucky rubber pads inserted between.

Real cotton blankets and bedspreads

AM/PM or care with real cotton terry wash cloths and a bar of Ivory Soap that floated in a basin of water.

BP machines on wheels that one took from patient bed to bed, often left out in the halls when not in use.

Meds given out from "med carts" by the medication nurse each shift.

Hunting down a doctor to start an IV as nurses weren't allowed.Wearing a (clean) isolation gown to keep warm on cold units/floors.

Infant formula, and fluids came in prepackaged (glass) bottles with nipples.

Various OR preps that included full shaving (often with those god awful dull hospital razors, can only imagine the barber's rash afterwards).

Being written up or sent home for being either out uniform, or wearing incorrect footwear (such as clogs).

Speaking formally to patients and in the third person.

Glass thermometers with bin liner type sheaths at bedside, blue for oral, red for anal.

OB run on a schedule that seemed to mainly suit nurses and other staff.Post delivery infants taken at once to the nursery (no bonding and so forth), for bathing, and so forth.

Mother would be "allowed" to see her baby "later". A nurse or doctor going out to the father's waiting room to inform the new dad and family the baby had arrived. There was always a tiny window of anexity until the doctor or nurse announced the baby's gender and condition of it's mother. Father and or family would be instructed or taken to the nursery window to "see" the infant. Visiting the new mother could be also then or maybe later.

Glass enclosed nurseries with nurses in scrub dresses and often wearing masks. Wheeling infants down the halls for feeding via those large carts. Feeding was done via formula (again in those glass bottles). No breast feeding support.

Visiting hours and number of visitors on maternity floors was strictly enforced. Floors going on lock down when babies were out. There was little to no rooming in of mother and baby, indeed in some places it wasn't quite clear who had the baby in the first place! *LOL*.

Baby was brought out on schedule and taken away back to the nursery the same. Requests for more time got a response along these lines "I'm sorry Mrs. Johnson, but baby needs his rest now, and so do you". Or, "Mr. Jones, your son must return to the nursery now, you can hold him all you want after he goes home".

The old standard floor shifts: 7-3, 3-11, 11-7. Yes, it involved more patient hand offs, but greatly simplified childcare and other arrangements.

Metal chart holders so full they often sprang open inside the chart "cart", causing contents to litter about.

Carrying an armful of said charts (while trying to balance a cup of coffee or can of soda) and trying to find a spot to sit down and get one's charting done.

Chucking soiled linens down laundry chutes (in bags of course).

Having to request permisson to wear scrubs because one's uniform became soiled. Then having permission denied because it "might make you look like a doctor".

Piki

154 Posts

Originally Posted by Elvish

Oh. We called that 'racking the urine.'

And we still do postpartum sitz baths....just that they're one per patient and not washed between.

I am used to them being called "serial urines". Every time you add a fresh sample, the oldest one gets tossed and you keep on shuffling down the line lol. Here's to old school.

I'm not old school (been an RN only 3 years) but we still do 3 glass cycles on our post TURPs or prostate surgery patients.

I've also used granulex spray, so it can't be totally old school. It's the stuff that's sticky, brown and smells sweet. Comes in an aerosol can.

BanoraWhite

142 Posts

Specializes in -.

Bed making was part of Med/Surg I at nursing schools, and one was graded on (and expected to know backwards and forwards as a RN), making all three types of beds. Pillow slips had to have their openings face *AWAY* from the door.

Chux? No such thing! One used "draw sheets" and if lucky rubber pads inserted between.

Real cotton blankets and bedspreads

AM/PM or care with real cotton terry wash cloths and a bar of Ivory Soap that floated in a basin of water.

BP machines on wheels that one took from patient bed to bed, often left out in the halls when not in use.

Meds given out from "med carts" by the medication nurse each shift.

Speaking formally to patients and in the third person.

Glass thermometers with bin liner type sheaths at bedside, blue for oral, red for anal.

The old standard floor shifts: 7-3, 3-11, 11-7.

Chucking soiled linens down laundry chutes (in bags of course).

Sounds exactly like the nursing home I worked at last year...

Wrist boards for patients with IVs.

these still exist. i usually ask for one if my iv is near a joint

Moogie

1 Article; 1,796 Posts

Specializes in Gerontology, nursing education.
My last nursing school rotation in 1996 was Hospice. The manager had me passing meds-20 patients, most on q2h meds, plus meds for BTP. When I said that wasn't exactly how I had envisioned a hospice rotation and had hoped to learn about end-of-life care, hold the patients' hands, get to know them, she snapped at me that there wasn't TIME to get to know the patients or hold their hands.

How horrible is it that when someone is coming to the end of their lives that the very people who are charged with the gift of being able to guide them through those last days are supposed to just pass pills, get them dressed and walk away?

My friend died on that same unit in 2005 and it was much better then, as it was when my dad died in hospice October of last year, but I still remember telling me I didn't have time to get to know the dying patients I was caring for. That made no sense to me.

This just breaks my heart. What a horrible experience this must have been, not only for you but also for the patients and their families.

You know, when I got my BSN (bridge RN to BSN) in 1983, I continued working on the floor on which I had worked when I was in school. One day, my head nurse, a former Navy nurse in WWII, came up to me and told me that since I'd gotten my bachelor's degree, I was spending "too much time on the psychosocial s***." That was ridiculous. I went into nursing not wanting to just take care of physical bodies but because I wanted to take care of people---and I loved the holistic approach of the BSN program I attended. It's important to be organized enough to be able to complete one's work, but the idea of "tasks" being more important than people has never sat well with me.

Unfortunately, that is one part of nursing that has not changed. There is never enough time and always something that "needs" to get done. I'm not saying a nurse should spend a good chunk of the shift just visiting with patients, but I'm still idealistic enough to believe that if we don't address the whole person, we aren't doing the whole job.

canoehead, BSN, RN

6,890 Posts

Specializes in ER.

I remember those laundry chutes. I thought they were very cool, but scary, when you pulled your arm back just before a loaded bag came screaming down from the 5th floor.

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