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:

Specializes in Critical Care.
CABG patients can be home in less than 2 weeks,back to grilled cheese sandwhiches and marlboro's..

2 weeks??? Not sure where you work, but here they are home in 3 days.

tvccrn

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.
They still use the antiquated sticker system where I work as well.

We called them "Bingo" cards--when we filled one up (easy w/a really sick pt), we went up to the clerk's desk, put it on the counter and announced "Bingo"! :lol2:

I was very superstitious when starting an IV--didn't take any Bingo stickers off till I got it in.

I remember the clip on buttons. To this day I can't imagine sitting on a patient's bed....it's hard enough to sit in the chair while I give discharge instructions. In the ER most of the nurses call the physicians by their first name, but I can't do that....it was never allowed and some habits are really hard to break. How things have changed, and in some ways things have not changed at all. Thanks for this trip down memory lane.

Barbara

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
We called them "Bingo" cards--when we filled one up (easy w/a really sick pt), we went up to the clerk's desk, put it on the counter and announced "Bingo"! :lol2:

I was very superstitious when starting an IV--didn't take any Bingo stickers off till I got it in.

We still do that lol.

Specializes in Critical Care.

Anyone remember waiting for pharmacy to mix your nitro drip... which meant they were crushing the nitro tablets to add to the iv solution?!!!

Were I work we still have:

Gomco for intermittent suction

Old crank beds

6 of the rooms do not have a complete bathroom so a unit tub/shower is

used for those rooms

milk and molasses enemas work great

As an older peds nurse I remember:

making my own IV bags including continuos morphine drips before PCA

pumps

Glass IV bottles

Bourbon and Bismuth for excoriated skin from severe diarrhea

Mixing up formula on the floor from powder for the specialty formulas

Written requesitions for labs and written lab results

A parent had to prove to her insurance company that it would be cheaper to take her vent dependent child home than have the child live in the hospital for his entire life.

I knew I was an older nurse when I took care of the child of one of my

ex patients

As a pediatric patient I remember:

the Bird machine to help expand my lungs after surgery. Can someone

explain to be in more detail about the machine

Having 4 people to a room (now most expect private rooms)

Using the suction cups for EKGs

Paying daily for the TV (now most expect TV/VCR/DVD)

The strong smell of alcohol as soon as you walked in the hospital

When I read my medical record they discribed the catheter they used to do

my cardiac cath when I was an infant as "special tipped catheter"

I am assuming that they had to put something together for a 6lb baby

at the time.

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..

As a pediatric patient I remember:

Glad you survived! I don't know what that Bird machine is but if you had a cardiac cath of some sort, sounds serious! Do you think that is partly why you are a nurse? I had a procedure when I was six and I do remember those sweet nurses - I think that is partly what influenced ME to be one!

Zoeboboey,

I did go into nursing because of the wonderful nurses that I had as a child. As a 6 year old, I new who was a good nurse and who wasn't. All but just a couple of nurses were wonderful. I had my first heart surgery in '65 and my second in '72.

RN Susan,

I'm not sure but I believe the Bird was the first ventilator developed for an infant. It was not volume dependant like the adult ones were. If it is the one I am thinking about it was developed by a Neonatologist in San Antonio Texas at the Air Force Hospital. He did a lot of research there and had to build the first one from parts he invented. Prior to that we used a ventilator called a Jade which was just a small version of the adults ones. To put a child on a ventilator before the Bird was pretty much the kiss of death because of all the lung damange they received. As was a tracheotomy for a child back in the 60's.....they only had a 50% survival rate. The equipment used for Pediatrics has changed radically thanks to NASA and their need for making everything small to fit in the space capsule.

Barbara

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
Zoeboboey,

I did go into nursing because of the wonderful nurses that I had as a child. As a 6 year old, I new who was a good nurse and who wasn't. All but just a couple of nurses were wonderful. I had my first heart surgery in '65 and my second in '72.

Funny how that works - something awful turned into something good. Yes, I knew what a "good one" was vs a "bad one", and fortunately I don't recall too many bad ones.

I also remember just before going under anesthesia the guy promising to show me kittens. He said that he had 10 of them, and we were counting them as I went to sleep. I never DID get to see them, the traitor! (Who says 6 years olds can't remember stuff?)!!!

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
RN Susan,

I'm not sure but I believe the Bird was the first ventilator developed for an infant. It was not volume dependant like the adult ones were. If it is the one I am thinking about it was developed by a Neonatologist in San Antonio Texas at the Air Force Hospital. He did a lot of research there and had to build the first one from parts he invented. Prior to that we used a ventilator called a Jade which was just a small version of the adults ones. To put a child on a ventilator before the Bird was pretty much the kiss of death because of all the lung damange they received. As was a tracheotomy for a child back in the 60's.....they only had a 50% survival rate. The equipment used for Pediatrics has changed radically thanks to NASA and their need for making everything small to fit in the space capsule.

Barbara

Ding ding ding! You win the prize!

Forrest M. Bird

Born Jun 9 1921

Fluid Control Device; Respirator; Pediatric Ventilator

Respirator / Ventilator

Patent Number(s) 3,068,856; 3,191,596; 3,842,828

Inducted 1995

On television every week in the 1960s, Dr. Kildare committed himself to making his patients better. But try as he might, some would still not respond to his treatment. At those times his hospital's slogan was, when all else fails, 'get the Bird.' 'The Bird' was a little green box which became familiar to hospital patients throughout the world after it was introduced in 1958.

Invention Impact

It was the first highly reliable, low-cost, mass-produced medical respirator in the world, and it was invented by Forrest Bird. The 'Babybird' respirator, introduced in 1970, quickly reduced infant mortality for those with respiratory problems from 70 percent to less than 10 percent worldwide.

for more, see:

Invent Now | Hall of Fame | Search | Inventor Profile

It's funny cuz when I used to work with ventilators one of the alarms sounded like a "Bird" cheeping, lol...

ok girls and guys....

ice water for cardiac outputs

"code blue" called overhead- there were no pagers.

granulex for breakdown and bedsores.

doing nightly weights on pts with the one and only bedscale

if you tell a new nurse you took "paper boards" they look at you funny

Stryker frames!!! I forgot.... lol

calling the attending at 3am because his pt was arresting, and the house officer was running the code

taking the first ever ACLS class!!!!!!!! does anyone remember how horrible that was????

can't remember anymore right now, but I'm sure I'll think of more.

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