Differences: Nursing then and now...

Is this an assignment?

Hello Valerie,

No, t's not an assignment, it's more of a curious fascination with how it was then. Maybe it's just me, I've noticed that most of our instructors say that nurses now are different than how they were in their day.

What exactly is THEN?:chuckle

When I graduated in 1983, we did pirmary care nursing. The patients stayed longer in the hospital so not every patient was needy. I smoked in the nurses station (I have been smoke free for 19 years). I think we were more respected, I never remember having words with a patient or family member........it just seemed more civil.

Thanks, everyone, for your replies. At least now, I have and idea of what my instructors call "the good 'ol days."

No more stories? I'm a student too, and I LOVE hearing these! We have instructors who tell us about the days when they had to wear dresses, caps, and tights to school, back when hospitals were the schools, and how they were appalled when they learned they had to start using gloves. (Explains why sometimes you'll catch a nurse ripping off a finger or two of the glove before she puts in an IV or draws blood... bad!) To us, we can't even imagine not using gloves, etc. It's amazing. One of the hospitals we have a lot of clinicals at has a whole mini "nursing museum" because they used to be one of the nicest nursing schools in the area and it's so cool just to even look at all of the equipment you used to use. I love hearing your stories!!

No more stories? I'm a student too, and I LOVE hearing these! We have instructors who tell us about the days when they had to wear dresses, caps, and tights to school, back when hospitals were the schools, and how they were appalled when they learned they had to start using gloves. (Explains why sometimes you'll catch a nurse ripping off a finger or two of the glove before she puts in an IV or draws blood... bad!) To us, we can't even imagine not using gloves, etc. It's amazing. One of the hospitals we have a lot of clinicals at has a whole mini "nursing museum" because they used to be one of the nicest nursing schools in the area and it's so cool just to even look at all of the equipment you used to use. I love hearing your stories!!

I've been a nurse since 1961. I graduated from a very large teaching hospital in New York City. At that time, the only things disposable were paper cups. Interns, and residents started IV's . When a patient came in with phlebatis, the treatment was to cover her legs with warm towels which would be removed periodically. There were no ward clerks, no computers, no monitors and we were expected to a small amount of housekeeping. We word stiff hats, starched uniforms, polished, white shoes, hair couldn't touch the coller, low salary, and we had to put up with sexual harassment to boot.

I was 20 when I graduated from nursing school and I worked with an OB doctor, who removed all his clothing and one of us had to put on his gown. He got a big thrill out of this. When we complained we were told it was easier to replace on of us, than a physician. Oh, and the treatment for ulcers was Maalox and milk.

The first time I saw a disposable enema can, I was sooo happy.LOL!

I graduated in 1963. I was 20 years old. I graudated from a teaching hospital. We had to wear the hats, which in the hospital I graduated from, were gauze like round things with a black ribbon around the edge. We wore starched uniforms and white shoes. We were responsible for our patients, some housekeeping and assisted interns whose job it was to start IV's. We lifted heavy patients without the aid of a machine; the needles and syringes were placed in a large drawer where we would assemble them. We didn't have telemetry, scans, and b/p were taken with a stethescope and spygnomanometer Phlebitis was teated with warm towels wrapped around the patients legs. When they got cold, they were changed to another set of warm, wet towels. The only disposable item I can remember was the paper cup at the water fountain.

We also put up with what you would call sexual harassment today. I worked labor/delivery, and there was a doctor old enough to be my grandfather who loved to disrobe down to his boxer shorts. One of us had to put his gown on. We complained, but were told it was easier to replace one of us than a physician.

I can't tell you how happy I was the first time I saw a disposable enema can. That's all this old girl can remember. Oh, the pay was terrible!

when i graduated, there were ash trays in every nurse's station so the cardiologists and pulmonologists could smoke while making rounds.

we did team nursing -- one rn and one na for 15 med/surg patients during the daytime, 30 patients at night.

there was a special icu for "vips" and it had carpeting, paintings and equipment. the "other icu" did without equipment if someone in the vip icu wanted it.

we used buretrols for all our drips -- dopamine, epinephrine, isuprel -- you name it. no iv pumps, just buretrols. you dropped an hour's worth of your drip into the buretrol then counted the drops so it ran in over an hour.

there was no such thing as a pocket calculator. we drew up 3 syringes full of ns for our cardiac outputs, injected them and then calculated the average by long division. we also calculated the cardiac index and svr by long division -- at the end of the day we had paper towels covered with math in case someone questioned our numbers.

patients and familes respected us and were grateful.

physicians didn't respect us and often insisted we give them our chairs when they came onto the unit. sexual harrassment was a given and i once saw a nurse manager fired for standing up for the nurse a physician had just punched out. (female nurse, male physician. when he punched out a fellow physician, he went to jail!)

visiting hours were limited and visitors stuck to them.

I shared some of this with the nurses I work with. It made our night. Most of us are in our mid 50's and have been doing this for a while. All can relate to Tx's that we never would do today. Tolerating treatment from Dr's we never would today and getting more joy from our work than we ever had! We have worn many hats, from the first ones that we "bobbie pinned" to our heads to the new job responsibilities we learned along the way. One of the greatest things about this career is that it is never stagnant. You can never get tired of it. We did agree on one thing....We were multi purpose then. Nothing went to someone else. Nursing was left to find an ans. to all problems. LOL. and we still find that true :).

Hello all,

I graduated nursing school in 1970. One difference back then was about writing doctor's orders. When I made rounds with a surgeon I was expected to listen to him and quickly write most of the new,long post-op orders for each patient--and doctors considered nurses less competent if they asked the doctor to repeat or clarify these verbal orders.

Another difference back then was fewer guidelines to do some medical procedures. One registered nurse on my floor was placed on probation for about two weeks from work because the doctor was running late and she removed a few sutures from a patient's incision so that he could be discharged home. At that time, the hospital guidelines included that only doctors were allowed to remove sutures.

One other example of differences back then was less availabiltiy of patient monitoring equipment. For example, there were no electric IV pumps on some of my first jobs. We were required to make IV rounds each hour to check the site, count the drip rate to make sure it matched the order, and mark how much IV fluid was remaining in the IV bag(and notice if difference in volume in bag from previous hour was consistent with rate ordered by doctor). The risks for IV problems were higher because the only "sensor" you had between IV rounds was the patient who might have been too sick to notice any change. Yes! Many things in nursing were very different "back then" !