Anybody remember this

[prmenrs, RN]

[babyNP., APRN]

Nope. What is it?

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Oh yeah- place a drop of urine on it and the 'spyglass' thing reads the specific gravity.

How about spinning your own crits? Or spinning breast milk in the centrifuge to determine the calorie count??

Old school.

[prmenrs, RN]

It's a refractometer--aka, a pee-meter. I was looking @ the 'deals of the day' on amazon--and there it is!! I always thought they were reeaally expensive. Not really. You had to squeeze a drop of urine out of the diaper--kinda gross, but, Mary's right, you got the specific gravity.

And I do remember diy crits and other labs and "cream-o-crits" for breast milk. Then the lab realized they could generate revenue from all these things the nurses were doing for "free", and decided we weren't qualified to do any of it. Classic.

Oh, the fun you kids missed!!! (not)

[shelbs3, BSN, RN]

I work in peds heme onc and we still use that exact refractometer. Our kiddos need to reach a very specific spec grav in order to start some chemos and they tell us our clinitech urinalysis strip reader just isn't accurate enough. It always grosses me out a little having pee so close to my face.

[shermrn]

A refractometer is used a lot in home brewing beer to check specific gravity before fermentation. I'm guessing the homebrew hobby is where a lot of the sales come from.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

I also use one for my marine aquarium for salinity level

[prmenrs, RN]

It was on the deal of the day page w/a lot of other aquarium supplies. But it will always be a pee-meter to me!

[WoundedBird]

I've used it for hydration checks on our HS wrestlers during their weight certifications at the start of the season. If you're dehydrated, your weight isn't certified that day. It was a great way to help ensure safe weight loss at the HS level. Plus, once your weight was certified, you couldn't compete at a lower weight that season. A much safer approach than what my HS classmates were doing less than 10 years earlier to make weight.

[Bortaz, MSN, RN]

I thought it was a light sabre.

[prmenrs, RN]

@Bortaz--it doesn't light up, sorry!

[walkingrock, ADN]

Yup, and remember spinning hcts, and remember handling blood without gloves...anybody remember DeLee's (using your mouth for suction!) for mec aspiration at deliveries? :poop: