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:

:roll I still do this too!!!! You know your a diehard nurse when.... :D I wonder if they still teach this stuff in nursing schools anywhere?

Yes, I'm a student in nursing school, and our "lab" doesnt have fitted sheets, we were TESTED on mitered corners and how to change a pillowcase correctly.

Specializes in TRAUMA,TRANSPLANT,CARDIOTHORACIC.

Holly,(what an appropriate name right now)thanks for the thread,really enjoyable.Although compare to now,our equipment and therapies appeared antiquated,I felt the patients and families were different as well,we got more respect,but so did everyone,most folks still feared God,the cops and their parents.A lot of folks have lost God,the cops fear us and our parents are not as respected and revered as in the past.Other than ER and really bad drunks,I never heard the swearing I hear now,the entitlement that families and patients think they deserve and most administrations push.Yes it's good to question decisions,but some days are a fight every single hour with some bozo family member whose entire medical encyclopedia came from JERRY SPRINGER.Those still of the WWII era still practice manners and respect.I don;t remember the dead lingering as long as they do now,I;ve had patients with mold found in their wounds they are so far gone,but some distant cousin or hurt and dysfunctional son just can;t make the decision to let paw go...so at $10,000 a day his respirator puffs,his rectal tube drains,and we put drops in his eyes because he no nonger blinks.Years ago,the doc called the code,went out to the family and said he was gone,we did everything we could,etc...now we have bedside vigils,some hospitals allow families present for codes and washing off stool and dressing changes..but I can't go in the backroom of WALMART,but these 'customers" can walk all over us.I used to like the short visits in the ICU when the patients were real sick..I could think better and faster..now it's like i have 2 or 3 patients..the one in bed and the 3 dingos staring at the monitor all day.When patients are awake and doing well,I'm all for it,but demented,vented and dependent..some folks just get in the way.Pedi,totally different story,and I stay away from anyone under 100 pounds.Even the drug addicts and prostitutes 20 years ago,knew we were the good guys and treated us pretty good.I don't see that now.Hopefully when generation X have brats of their own,and they're getting there,they'll start to see the error of thier selfish ways and bring the kids up different.With the fantastic money nurses make now,I feel why there is a shortage is this new generation just don't know how to work hard or selflessly..but then again I see some new kids coming in,the nine earrings,the tat across the lumbar area,plugged into the IPOD during break,and they are the brightest,most assertive and compassionate bunch I have seen in some time.SO there is hope.We can always be glad for change,years ago,teachers nurses and stewardesses(who usually had to be RN'S)had to retire once they got married.

Specializes in Med Surg, Parish Nurse, Hospice.

peritoneal dialaysis done with glass bottles after the doc put the cath in on the floor in the exam room.

drawing up chemo in the med room, no gloves etc.

when tpn started, this was a very big thing.

getting up to give the md your seat.

making rounds with the md, not being allowed to sit down in the room while he talked with the pt and you carried 20 charts.

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
... SO there is hope...

We do have that (hope) Levo. We always have hope - thank you for your honest post.

I do feel that some of us parents (myself included) did our kids an injustice by being too kind and too worried about "abusing" them. Now my kid is pretty clueless (altho WHEN he has a job they say he does a good job - wonder why I couldn't get anything out of him!)

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

Cracking your shins on bed cranks

I'll NEVER miss that. I still have scars.

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

I have scars from the big "H" cylinders of O2--we didn't have piped O2 @ the hospital where I went to school. Every time I hit the trolley, it meant a trip to the supermarket for another pkg of stockings.

Blood that came in bottles! Standing up when a senior entered the room.

Blood that came in bottles! Standing up when a senior entered the room.

And you're older yet if you remember saving those I.V. bottles (well, not the blood bottles just those from the D5W or NS) for tube feedings which the kitchen whipped up. Baxter used to have a screw 'top' and bigger tubing with a roller-adjust. It worked well when we couldn't use a pump because the patient was in an oxygen tent. Remember those?

You're also an old nurse if you remember those cumbersome privacy screens which we had to drag out when 'overflow' patients were parked for days in the hallways.

Standing up or relinquishing one's seat to a white coat, however, is NOT ancient history and is, in fact, STILL expected behavior today. And don't you dare take your charting into the doctors' dictation/conference room. No way!!

Oh, dear. I must be older than even bratt1. I recall bargaining up from an offered $1.25 to $1.29! an hour back when our stockings were cotton or silk and the hospital laundered and stiffly starched our uniforms so we wouldn't wear them on the street. Surely someone here remembers those removable clip-on buttons. Or never, ever sitting in a patient's room---certainly not on the bed---under any circumstance, ever. Never.

When all the supplies from toothbrushes to packs of gauze to angiocaths had yellow stickers on them, to be place on the patient's card at the doorway, so they'd get charged for them

bedpan hoppers

The hospital I did clinicals at still does that!!!!!!!! In which case, may i add Going home with a yellow sticker attached to your shoulder you forgot about and everyone who saw you neglected to mention!:smackingf

They still use the antiquated sticker system where I work as well.

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
... Surely someone here remembers those removable clip-on buttons. Or never, ever sitting in a patient's room---certainly not on the bed---under any circumstance, ever. Never.

Clip on buttons?

Oh, and to this day I feel GUILTY sitting on the patient's bed, even if the patient is someone I know and love ... I picture walking around with all these germies on my bum...

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