Crusty Old Bat Society

Nurses General Nursing

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I have asked before - How does one joined. How crusty does one have to be? Is 52 Old enough? Are we talking about the flying Mammal or a baseball bat? Are there dues? Enguiring minds want to know!

Hppy

Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Snark the boojum. *swoon*

And if you're Hunting a Snark, you'll want to do it in style...

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Davey has flipped his Twinkie!

Okay, I'll play.

My mom used to smoke at the bedside and not wear gloves during patient care. Got out of her seat for doctors.

She also wore a cap. I think she even had a cape.

Mom was a hottie.

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Davey has flipped his Twinkie!

Okay, I'll play.

My mom used to smoke at the bedside and not wear gloves during patient care. Got out of her seat for doctors.

She also wore a cap. I think she even had a cape.

Mom was a hottie.

I am in a continual state of flipping my Twinkie, thank you very much, Farawyn!

Just about everywhere in the Hospital, Doctors, Nurses, Patients all smoked. Well, everyone who had lips. I remember the first time I saw Paramedics wearing gloves. It was like the first time I saw a Lady pumping gasoline- odd. I would stand up for Doctors, much as I still do for Ladies. Since the Female Nurses wore caps, I wore a white baseball cap with my Nursing pin on it.

And I too, was a hottie!

Thanks for playing!

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Specializes in Hospice.

Let's see...

Ok, way back in the 80s, we had real visiting hours, and could actually make visitors leave at 8pm!! Our Unit Secretary would get on the overhead pager and announce "Visiting hours are now over. Your loved ones need their rest. Please gather up your belongings and make your way to the nearest elevator." She was my hero.

Also, children as visitors were discouraged, and you didn't have to fight your way through a room full of people to get to your patient.

If you worked nights, you could smoke at the Nurses' station. Our vending area even had a cigarette machine!

Unit Managers were called "Head Nurses", and a popular joke at the time was:

"How do you recognize a Head Nurse?"

"She's the one with the dirty knees."

Ba-dum bum...

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Unit Managers were called "Head Nurses", and a popular joke at the time was:

"How do you recognize a Head Nurse?"

"She's the one with the dirty knees."

Ba-dum bum...

Ooooooh, Jensmom they're gonna get you for that! (For COBs never die, they just faaaaade away..)

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Specializes in Dialysis.

My mom too! She also talks (laughs) about post surgical patients who would burn the mattresses by dropping lit cigarettes into the bed, while dozing off...She no longer smokes. I remember ashtrays in the nurses station when I was a little kid. Times have definitely changed! But the stories that the COBs tell are rich with knowledge and sometimes so funny it brings tears to the eyes, I get to laughing so hard (this is in response to Farawyn's post about her mom being a nurse, old school, and a hottie. Mine was too!)

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My mom too! She also talks (laughs) about post surgical patients who would burn the mattresses by dropping lit cigarettes into the bed, while dozing off...She no longer smokes. I remember ashtrays in the nurses station when I was a little kid. Times have definitely changed! But the stories that the COBs tell are rich with knowledge and sometimes so funny it brings tears to the eyes, I get to laughing so hard (this is in response to Farawyn's post about her mom being a nurse, old school, and a hottie. Mine was too!)

Yea, that's what I think of when I think COB. Or Jensmom7's "Head Nurses". Or the others I've mentioned earlier in this thread.

Sure I have Crust. I'm sure I qualify, but not like that. Not yet. I aspire to it.

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Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.
Takes time to develop a crust, just like barnacles and lichen. Age comes on its own. Crust develops with age in nursing. Accusations are the spice going into the crust (although my grandmother only recommended a pinch of baking soda while mixing the crust dough). Since your crust is so thick, the accusations can only add to you, rather than diminish.

To begin your crust, you must snark the boojum, thus eliciting NETY*NETY*NETY and jealousy accusations..... or if no snark a healthy dose of realism in your responses.

what is a boojum and how do you snark it...or shouldn't I ask???

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I became a nurse about 18 years ago. So I worked with my fair share of COB's is their 60's and one in her 70's who had great stories to tell about our hospital.

Back then, the nurses pretty much ran the hospital. "Caught" babies while the doc tried to get there through a snowstorm. Handled the ER patients alone. Etc.

And yes, nurses and docs smoked at the nurses' station. And in the med room - there would be nurses in there smoking and the door would open and smoke would billow out.

Many of those nurses are either retired or dead now. I still work with one though and she's got some great stories to tell as well. Our hospital could be a small version of The House Of God at times. :sarcastic:

In many ways, our small rural hospital nurses from that COB era were more highly trained that we are today just by their experiences at work. Now we are so specialized, it is kind of sad.

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Specializes in Hospice.

Many of those nurses are either retired or dead now. I still work with one though and she's got some great stories to tell as well. Our hospital could be a small version of The House Of God at times. :sarcastic:

.

Ah, "The House of God". Great book, made into a craptastic movie ("Young Doctors in Love").

I read it in college in the 70s, laughed until I cried. Favorite passage:

(Resident describing how utilize bed heights to get a patient transferred to another unit):

"A fall from this height, automatic turf to Ortho. A fall from THIS height, turf to Neuro. If they fall from up HERE, it's a turf to the Morgue."

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Specializes in Public Health, TB.

I was an LPN in the "80s, and I don't remember smoking in the nursing station, but the patients could smoke in their rooms, and we put little signs up to warn visitors not to smoke if oxygen was in use in the room. Ugh!

Our main instructor used to regale us with stories about her training in the '40s, when the student nurses did a lot of the non-skilled labor: washing, patching, powdering, packaging and autoclaving gloves, cleaning glass syringes, matching plunger to barrels, boiling enema tubes.

The most "archaic" task I remember doing personally, was making beds with all flat sheets in the '70s, as an aide. And finger cots.

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Specializes in pediatrics; PICU; NICU.

I am most definitely a COB!

I graduated in 1978, wore all white & my cap at my first job. We were required to give up our chairs for the doctors & back then we had to go through the "house supervisor" to get permission to call a doctor during the night for any reason.

There was a lot of smoking in hospitals back then (doctors, nurses, patients, & everyone else).

I had forgotten about not having fitted sheets. What a pain to have to make beds with only flat sheets!

Visitors were limited to 2 at a time, no exceptions. At 8 pm they were told to leave & the door to the unit was locked for the night. (This was a Peds unit in the inner city so that was a safety measure.) For the first 2 years I worked, parents still were not being allowed to stay overnight with their kids. Once hospitals decided to start allowing parents to stay, they were only given a straight chair to sit in all night.

I'm sure I'll think of other things but my brain is also crusty so it takes a while!

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