Let's play I Remember When.....

[RNSue]

I think it would be a good idea and fun for any nurse who has been working for, oh let's say 15+ years, to post a message for the younger and/or less experienced nurses, so they can see where us veteran nurses are coming from. What do you think??? I'll start it off with.... I remember when it was so quiet on our full 63 bed med-surg floor on the night shift that I could hardly stay awake!...when there was a unit clerk on the night shift! ...when the patient's bed side tables, overbed table, and shelf in the bathroom had to cleared of all personal care items at all times and had to be in the drawers and be labeled with their names in black marker!...when it was required to wear our little white nurse's hats!...when hair couldn't touch our collars!...when we had to stand when a doctor came into the room!... when there was a shift charge nurse who rounded with the doctor and wrote all his orders down on a notepad and then came back to the station and wrote the orders on the chart, handed them to the unit clerk and then checked them off!(what happened to that person!?)...when a patient was admitted the night before so she could have a douche administered in the AM before her GYN surgery...when we had aides who stocked, cleaned, AND answered lights...when we used up one entire monthly staff meeting and half of the next month's meeting debating how we could get ice water to the patients without A. contaminating the kitchen, B. contaminating the cart used to push the ice bucket around with, C. contaminating the ice scoop, and D.wasting time!...when we put sugar in wounds and taped an oxygen mask over it!...when we could get all our work done, sit around and have a conversation with our co-workers,chart and still get out on time!...Work an entire night shift as the med nurse and give only two PRNs for the whole shift!(63 pts)...When we had time to clean out drawers and wipe the counters down(at least 3 times a week)!... I've been a nurse since 1978, not so long ago,considering I still have about the same amount of time left to go before I retire!!This career is a trip and a half!!!

[gitterbug]

Does anyone pick up the fact that patient load was heavy but work was completed? Of course, there was support staff to assist the nurse and our

jobs gave us a sense of pride.

Remember when every patient had I & O and VS charted everyday, every shift.

[athena55, BSN, RN]

Hello All!

My goodness, I can't believe this is the first I am viewing this thread! Okay, my recall, and I know others have stated the same things:

Glass syringes. I remember I almost failed nursing school because I couldn't get the knack of putting the darn thing together "aseptically" without touching the inside of the paper that it was wrapped in.....

Remember counting the Needles and Syringes at end of shift?

Non-disposable gloves, endotracheal tubes. We had to collect all the gloves we used for the shift and return them to Central Supply so that they could be re-sterilized.

Speaking of non-disposable endotracheal tubes...Remember when you had to switch the ET tube from one side of the mouth to the other, to prevent breakdown because the red rubber tube was so darn rigid?

Remember when the night shift had to beg, borrow or steal supplies from another floor because days or evenings had a big surgical case and used up all the alloted 4x4's For The Week?

Remember when windows in the rooms could be opened? ( and they would be opened especially during the spring and summer times)

Remember how you were taught in nursing school, in the event of a mattress fire, you were to remove your patient from the smoldering bed, drag the burning mattress to the window and throw it out (the window)? That was when patients were allowed to smoke in their beds

Speaking of smoking in the hospital, remember when physicians would make rounds with a lit cigarette dangling out of their mouths?

Remember wards with a central nursing station?

Remember when a patient could be legally denied care in the Emergency Department?

Remember when the E.D. was called E.R and triage was done by the ER admitting clerk?

Remember dumb waiters that were in the older-type hospitals?

Remember how hospital used to smell like rubbing alcohol?

Remember when you walked into the ICU and you smelled the distinct smell of Paraldehyde and you knew you (and your patient)were in for a rough night?

Remember the very first arterial line setup? That big contraption of a monitor (with such a teeny tiny screen) and the non-disposable transducer that cost like hundreds of dollars. A colleague of mine accidentally threw out the metal transducer and then spent that morning in the garbage dumpster until she found it

Remember the first generation of Swan Ganz and how it would take hours to insert one because you had to wait for the fluoroscopy machine to be available and sent up to the ICU? I was on the "Swan Ganz insertion team" and would come in at 0500 to assist with the set-up, insertion and after-care.

Any one remember the Levin Shunt?

Remember how we treated CHF and pulmonary edema way back in the day? By using tourniquets (a tourniquet was placed on three extremities, making sure not to occlude the arterial pulse, and rotating them every 15 minutes using a flow sheet to document the placement and vitals) Or, how about "wet phlebotomy" where you were actually taking 500 ml of blood out of a patient? This was a few years before Morphine was routinely used

Remember if you had a patient who had subcutaneous emphysema, and the surgeon would routinely make small slits in the skin with a scalpel, to release the trapped air?

Remember Da Nang Lung? Precursor to ARDS

Remember when the highest anyone dared to use PEEP was 20 cm?

Remember when the standard nursing practice (1973) was to suction an intubated patient every 15 minutes?

Remember when some patients who had small bowel surgery and had a jejunostomy tube in situ, would sometimes have the drainage from the j-tube re-instilled into their nasogastric tube? Rationale at that time was to give the patient back the enzymes that were being drained out of them....

Remember your very first shift as a new graduate nurse?

Sorry, I sort of got carried away.

athena

[Lesli61]

I remember being a 15 y.o. candystriper, having to do vitals and charting on the floor. Then as a 16 y.o candystriper in the ER digging wallets out of bloody purses from car accident victims to get their information. I also cleaned suture trays and handled sharps with no gloves!

[robfall]

From the EMS side; using MAST pants on hypotensive patients. And having the ED staff cut them off! Cleaning contaminated MAST at the local self serve car wash. Using EOA's instead of ET for codes. Having to call in to the base hospital for orders to defibrillate.

[OC_An Khe]

Da Nang lung, now that I haven't heard since '69 in the Central Highlands.

[PRINCESS RN]

I am only a first year RN, but Milk of Molasses enemas are amazing!! I could not believe the results you could get from milk and molasses together!! PRINCESS RN.

[mscsrjhm]

Only one thing I didn't see on this thread- bicarb every 5 minutes in a code.

Sorry- two things: medication cards- different colors for different times, checking them against the kardex, no unit doses then- and smoking a cigarette.

Adding meds to IV's/mixing piggyback IV's- and that ?orange? label- (I am having a hard time remembering)

Quick caths, taping buttocks to the rails, betadine and sugar, actual access to the kitchen at night, vest restraints, lots and lots of B-12 shots

Memory coming back- a little more than 2 things.

[sirI, MSN, APRN, NP]

Blue/Black ink for day shift

Green ink for evenings

Red ink for nights

[Deb2of9]

I am sure that much of what I remember is posted somewhere in this post. I see it has gone on for several pages. When I first became a nurse we were still using glass thermometers. We had to take all of the temperatures and then come back and soak all of the thermometers that we used in alcohol after cleaning them with soap and water. The bins were labled so you knew which one was for clean thermometers and which were the dirty ones. In fact each unit had an autoclave on it for sterilizing our scissors hemostats and other equitpment that we used. In fact Central Supply was where you took the big things down to be sterilized. We didn't have almost anything that was disposable. Nurses had started to not wear caps, and doctors would not speak to a nurse who wasn't wearing a cap. I remember the no hair above the collar, and uniforms were dresses unless you worked OR where you wore scrubs. White hose and all white shoes were the norm, not running or walking shoes that most nurses use as their work shoes now. Uniforms were only in white. I remember hating the nurses cap because it got caught on curtains and anything else in the way. Doctors were "GOD" and don't you forget it and actually question an order. Night shift we actually could read or due knitting, crocheting etc, in between patient care. No aide ever questioned being told to answer a light that wasn't theirs or tohelp someone else. We actually still all worked together as a team and not as individuals afraid to do something more than someone else, after all we were all there to help the patient. I started nursing in 1983 but may be mixing some of my memories with those of being an aide which I was since 1974.

Someone asked about sugar in wounds. I don't know if this was answered. We used to use sugar, milk of magnesia and betadine to make a paste to treat bedsores and it worked better than most of what we used now. I think it helped to promote granualtion of the wound and improved circulation. I know that we also used to tape a plastic bag over a wound and put an O2 cannula through a small hole in it to give oxygen therapy to the wound which encouraged circulation. Again It worked very well to heal the wounds. I know that they stopped the betadine because of allergies and I think they were afraid of the sugar drawing bugs.

Adding to what I remember, is hospital corners on the beds that were made fresh everyday. No fitted sheets, and the sheets were all crisp white sheets. If they got a stain or a tear they weren't used anymore. Every pateint got a bath followed by a freshly made bed every day.

I also remember you had a patient load that allowed you to spend time with your pateint and their family and actually be able to answer the questions that they had.

[CaseManager1947]

I remember... glass syringes, they came in these metal containers that they were sterilized in... i also remember gastric suction using a wangensteen set -up, whata mess. i also remember rotating tourniquets for CHF, and diluting morphine tablets for injection of morphine!! We learned how to do it in NS, but were told "you'll never really have to do that". HA.

I remember my first nursing job ($3.25 per hour) me one LPN and two aides for 35 patients, second shift. I worked medical floor, had everyone from babies to elders. Anyone ever have patients in the hall, behind a screen??

New MI with no monitors, no drips. Oh yes, and those gawd awful med trays, with the dumb little cards. Anyone ever give OJ, castor oil, and baking soda for prep for x-rays. I'm here to tell ya, RESULTS !! When I worked in OR, cleaning out suction tubings, repacking for sterilization.UGH.

We used to re-cycle everything in that OR. OH well I'm rambling, but those were the days, huh1

[RNSue]

LoriAlabamaRN, Thanks for resurrecting the post I started on 12/12/00. It was fun remembering things from back then. Allnurses even included it in one of their newsletters. I have one more: "I Remember When..." the level of professionalism was much higher. We took our jobs seriously. Sure, we had moments of fun with our co-workers and the patients even, but nothing like the unprofessionalism going on now. It seems the newer nurses are quick to talk back, argue about advice and just generally show no respect for nurses with triple or quadruple the years of experience that they have. They are quick to dismiss any wisdom or words of advice, even about patient care issues. They don't know that we have been around since before DRGs and the business model for healthcare were initiated. Very few of them keep up with nursing news or new legislation, even when it could benefit them. They don't even read nursing journals. I miss the discussions we used to have during downtime. I have worked on some units where the main topic of conversations is what new clothes they bought recently, what newest piece of jewelry their husbands have just bought for them, and what vacation they are going to take. Which are all interesting topics, but THAT IS ALL THEY TALK ABOUT. They have their heads in the sand and don't even know it. I have read alot of articles about what needs to be done to "FIX" the working environment for nurses. What these experts don't realize is that we HAD the right environment at one time. I miss those days.

[Jamesdotter]

I graduated in 1961 and remember most of the things mentioned. Also, I remember 7-bed and 9-bed wards, women or men only floors (county hospital), No tvs and No phones. You could really do a lot of teaching because you could get their undivided attention and in the large wards you had a large class!