You Know You're an Old(er) Nurse If . . .

Nurses General Nursing

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You know you're an older nurse if:

1. You remember working with nurses who wore caps. :nurse:

2. You remember nurses (and doctors) sitting at the nurses station drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes while charting. :smokin:

3. You remember when charting was done (handwritten) in 3 different colors (black or blue for day shift, green for evening shifts, red for night shift).

4. You remember when IV fluids came only in glass bottles.

5. You remember when breast milk wasn't a biohazard. :redlight:

6. You remember when chest tube setups consisted of glass bottles, rubber stoppers, and tubing.

7. You remember when white polyester uniforms were the standard for nurses.

8. You remember when you'd have given your eye teeth for a comfortable pair of nursing shoes (we haven't always been able to wear athletic shoes).

9. You remember when the hospital's top nurse was the director of nursing and not the chief nursing officer.

10. You remember giving lots of IM shots for pre-ops and pain meds.

What else?

HollyVK (with patient care experience going back to 1972) :gandalf:

Or this?

massgenboston.jpg

Massachusetts School of Nursing in Boston is one of the oldest schools of nursing in the country and was founded in 1873 along with Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing in New York City and the Connecticut Training School in New Haven.

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Some hospitals chose for their uniforms the current fashions worn by domestic servants, including cap and bibbed apron.

Fun times!

Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.

I look at caps like that- and some are even foofier- and wonder how on earth someone could be taken seriously with that thing on her head???

I did have a cap, but ours was pretty simple.

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
Sorry Zoe! Didn't mean to get you in any trouble. he,he! BTW Nice cap...looks like a bedpan turned upside down :lol2:

ha ha! yep, it does!

you've prolly already read this before (I know I have):

The following job description was given to floor nurses by a hospital in 1887:

In addition to caring for your 50 patients, each nurse will follow these regulations:

1. Daily sweep and mop the floors of your ward, dust the patient's furniture and window sills.

2. Maintain an even temperature in your ward by bringing in a scuttle of coal for the day's business.

3. Light is important to observe the patient's condition. Therefore, each day fill kerosene lamps, clean chimneys and trim wicks. Wash the windows once a week.

4. The nurse's notes are important in aiding the physician's work. Make your pens carefully; you may whittle nibs to your individual taste.

5. Each nurse on day duty will report every day at 7 a.m. and leave at 8 p.m. except on the Sabbath on which day you will be off from 12 noon to 2 p.m.

6. Graduate nurses in good standing with the director of nurses will be given an evening off each week for courting purposes or two evenings a week if you go regularly to church.

7. Each nurse should lay aside from each pay day a goodly sum of her earnings for her benefits during her declining years so that she will not become a burden. For example, if you earn $30 a month you should set aside $15.

8. Any nurse who smokes, uses liquor in any form, gets her hair done at a beauty shop, or frequents dance halls will give the director of nurses good reason to suspect her worth, intentions and integrity.

9. The nurse who performs her labors and serves her patients and doctors without fault for five years will be given an increase of five cents a day, providing there are no hospital debts outstanding.

:biere: :Snow:

you've prolly already read this before (I know I have):

The following job description was given to floor nurses by a hospital in 1887:

In addition to caring for your 50 patients....

50 patients! Talk about needing staffing ratios!:lol2:

5. Each nurse on day duty will report every day at 7 a.m. and leave at 8 p.m. except on the Sabbath on which day you will be off from 12 noon to 2 p.m.

6 days @13 hours/day + 1 day at 11 hours= 89 hours a WEEK!

Well they probably got at least an hour for lunch/dinner and another break during tea time.

7. Each nurse should lay aside from each pay day a goodly sum of her earnings for her benefits during her declining years so that she will not become a burden. For example, if you earn $30 a month you should set aside $15.
Ya mean they couldn't spend their dough on a Louis Vutton purse with matching sunglasses?

8. Any nurse who smokes, uses liquor in any form, gets her hair done at a beauty shop, or frequents dance halls will give the director of nurses good reason to suspect her worth, intentions and integrity.
I'dda been out in the street!

"No Madam Director/Sister, that isn't a tequila bottle I have hidden under my fru-fru nursing cap which covers my lovely coiffed hair!"

9. The nurse who performs her labors and serves her patients and doctors without fault for five years will be given an increase of five cents a day, providing there are no hospital debts outstanding.

Hmm, they must work in an HCA or Tenet facility!

This thread is great.

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
6 days @13 hours/day + 1 day at 11 hours= 89 hours a WEEK!

Well they probably got at least an hour for lunch/dinner and another break during tea time.

Ya mean they couldn't spend their dough on a Louis Vutton purse with matching sunglasses?

I'dda been out in the street!

"No Madam Director/Sister, that isn't a tequila bottle I have hidden under my fru-fru nursing cap which covers my lovely coiffed hair!"

Hmm, they must work in an HCA or Tenet facility!

This thread is great.

Ha ha! esp the cap covering your coiffure... :nono:

The first one of those is close, but her's was taller with a point and the dust ruffle went to the middle of her back. I'm delighted to see my cap is an antique...it's the last one the first page :lol2:

Barbara

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
The first one of those is close, but her's was taller with a point and the dust ruffle went to the middle of her back. I'm delighted to see my cap is an antique...it's the last one the first page :lol2:

Barbara

We used to call one of our instructors "Conehead" (not to her face) because of the dome on top of her head that she got thru her nursing school.

Another of ours had a tiny version of the ruffled version ... and another was a nun so she had a white veil ...

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
oh ruby, i remember i was dreadfully sick as well when i wrote the exam. wrote it with a box of kleenex, cough drops and a bottle of water to keep the hacking down.

i also remember during the lunch break (the test was divided into morning and afternoon sections) the whole class went to a nearby restaurant. some people drank alcohol (hope it worked!). no way i was gonna wait 3 months to write it when i felt better. i passed it though, first time.

fortunately i passed it the first time, too! man, was that a miserable weekend, though!

Specializes in obstetrics(high risk antepartum, L/D,etc.

State boards---we spent 2 days in Chicago to take the five tests. We were lucky, as we were the first nurses to take multiple choice tests. The nurses that graduated before us wrote essay questions!! In addition to the challenge of writing them, imagine the challenge of grading them.

I took boards in October and got results on January 20th. It was such a big thrill that I still remember the date.

This is such fun--remembering the "good old days". I am now thinking they weren't so good!

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