Nursing Hx:Share Oldtime Ineffective tx's?

Sleepyeyes · Sep 15, 2002

Oh my!! I remember smoking at the nurse's station too!!! :eek:

At my first nurse's aide job, I had to serve the dinner, then wash the dishes, and then I could shower people and put them to bed. Lifting each by myself of course. :lol2:

adrienurse, LPN · Sep 16, 2002

Used to work (briefly) in a nursing home in 1995(!) that did not supply gloves. Staff were also encouraged to rinse out feces stained washcloths in the toilet tank so that stains wouldn't be left after they were laundered.

Once attended a lecture on wound care, during which the lecturer mentioned that they were still washing around pressure ulcers BID with sunlite soap to "dry" them out -- 1n 1990.

Ah Pebbles, using Eusol -- must have been consulting Dr E**il.

zudy · Sep 16, 2002

We were taught in nursing school NOT to wear gloves!! :eek: The theory was " Do YOU wear gloves at home to clean yourself after you have a BM?" Supposedly, it would hurt the pts feelings if you wore gloves to do ANY of thier care. You were considered a wimp of you wore gloves during a trauma. Did the Sippy diet, 3 H enemas ( High, Hot, and a Hell of a lot) alcohol baths. Did all my charting with a pen in one hand and a cigarette in the other. I also played with the murcury every time I broke another glass thermomater. And breaking those glass bottles of dextrose! What a sticky mess!

semstr · Sep 16, 2002

Yes Zudy, we were taught the same thing about gloves!

And we used ox (yes, from the animal)-gall for the HHH-enema. Now those poor patients pooped and pooped and pooped!

Crouptents, sometimes we still use them at peds, cause we sell it as an adventure to the kids, at least then they stay in there.

Glass- and quecksilver thermometres, had to pay for them when broke, happened at least once during a shift.........expensive!

ah well, keep remembering, it is fun and for the young ones unbelievable I guess. Renee

stressedlpn · Sep 16, 2002

I once worked at a place where we were not allowed to "dress out" for isolation pts, it would hurt their feelings.

nakitamoon · Sep 16, 2002

I've only been in nursing since '93

Have had many conversations with long time nurses about changes,,,,

Couldn't imagine,,,, no gloves!!!!

Glass mercury thermometers,,,, would never be able to get my resident to hold it under thier tongue long enough,,,, shake it down,,,, get accurate reading,,,, geesh my day would never be done,,,, Let alone imagining breaking it,,,,

Have experience with mecurichrom,,,, (the nasty red stuff ),,,, from when I was child,,,, grandmother used it for all abrasions,,, cuts,,, etc,,,, didn't it burn as well?

As for the 'donuts' we still use them,,, for the life of me,,, I have seen no improvement,,,with or without them,,,, something else for my resident,,, to lose or use as a weapon!

~~kita

Dr. Kate, BSN, RN · Sep 16, 2002

What a trip down memory lane!

I hadn't thought about croup tents in years. The RTs really hated it when the nurses threw a little salt in the ice bin to increase the amount of steam. Don't know how the kids slept in those things they were always cold and damp no matter how often you changed the linen.

What about clysis infusions and infiltrating the instertion site with Wydase?

In tne mid-80s, my first supervisory position, every policy for a potentially dangerous situation, started with "the supervisor will" For example, in case of an emergency, the supervisor will remove the radium implants from the patient, place them in the protective container and remove from the area. That one was my personal favorite. Those were the days when superviors were either invulnerable or expendable.

kids · Sep 16, 2002

Originally posted by Dr. Kate
......What about clysis infusions and infiltrating the instertion site with Wydase?......

I had totally forgotten it existed!

As archaic as it seem it did serve a purpose, especially here in WA when they were sorting out the legalities of the whole Living Will thing...made it possible to NOT drop an NG down a failing DNR elderly patient with no veins.

Baxter or Abbott even made 'special' double tubing so you didn't have to use 2 pumps. I still remember the list of supplies to ask for from pharmacy. Our protocols called for adding the Wydase to the bag of fluid.

moonchild20002000 · Sep 17, 2002

I remember using IV ETOH to stop premature labor!

We had an OB doc that used a Phisohex/Merthiolate prep for deliveries.OUCH!

I also remember Buccal Pitocin,we put it in the pts. cheeks q30 minutes. It usually all dissolved about the same time if at all.Lots of tetanic contractions!

PJRNC2 · Sep 17, 2002

How about disolving Mannitol crystals? before popping the vial? This was B.L. (before Lasix) Had a vial recrystalize while I was drawing the Mannitol up with an l8 Ga. needle. Now that was a sight to behold. What was the other diuretic given that started with E.? Seemed we had to give 25 or 50cc Remember when we did not use filters after drawing meds up from vials? How about the little flow meters? for IV's And the old cut down trays! Yuck!

mark_LD_RN · Sep 17, 2002

interesting topic:)

i have seen the Buccal Pitocin route used by when i was just a kid.

I also had a old nurses tell me about night shift duties they had to perform.

1) sharpen all the needles used for IV's and Im injections, man just think reusable needles and syringes.

2) they used to wash and check the gloves for holes so they could be reused.

vag exams with out gloves! ewwwwwwwe, i would hate that one.

any body have any others i would love to hear them.

RainbowSkye · Sep 17, 2002

Oh, my gosh, what a trip down memory lane. Let's see if I can remember a few:

-glass iv bottles of course, even little itty bitty piggyback bottles

-rotating tourniquets (how thrilled we were to get the automatic ones)

-ekg machines with the little suction cups you had to move across the chest, then you had to use a little stylet to cut out the ekg and stick it on the form for the doc to read

-Aramine drips for supraventricular tach

-Clinic 411 nursing shoes (everyone had to have a pair of those)

-every patient had to have two pairs of TED hose, the nurse washed out a pair daily

-backrubs for hs care

-no automatic bp machines, no one had any kind of infusion pumps (you counted drip rates on everybody, even stuff like Lidocaine drips)

-no ultrasound for ob patients, best was an x-ray before delivery (and we would do a culdocentesis in the er to diagnose ectopic pregnacy)

-I hated report. I don't smoke and I think everyone else did in there. Geez.

I know there's a lot more, but that's all for now.