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 OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
It was used to actually "flip" patients over who had back injuries etc. That way there was (supposedly) less risk of injury, better healing. You can compare it to flipping a pancake.

Did anyone see the movie "The Other Side of the Mountain" about Jill Kinmont (skiier)? Jill is in a stryker frame at one point, I believe.

The Other Side of the Mountain (1975)

Yep, I remember the movie well. that was a stryker frame. That was a true story, very sad in the end. Remember the iron lung?

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

The iron lung gives me the creeps just looking at it.

A stryker frame was also used in the movie The Outsiders, but I don't know why because that character was burned from what I remember. I remember using stryker frames with patients with broken necks. Nothing like flipping a patient while they have tongs and cervical traction... scary.

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

You could also put a pt. w/a cervical fx on the stryker--you could put wts on the end, you would have one person lift the wts (gently) and let them down gently after the turn. It was easy to maintain the traction, too.

My 1st encounter was a pt w/draining abd fistulae. We could turn him prone so the bile could just drain w/o being on his skin for extended time. We put a chux under him.

re: iron lungs--

-adults who had had polio as children, they can have resp insufficiency if they have any bad resp viruses, colds, etc. The hospital I used to work, we had the only iron lung left in the county and we would occassionally get one of those pts. They much preferred going into the iron lung than being intubated, etc. They could probably be managed now w/some sort of non-invasive vent assistance. So, even into the 1990's that iron lung got used once in a while.

Specializes in ER/CCU/ and special fields.

You are working on the top floor of a hospital in California and during an earthquake the IV bottles clink against the metal because they are made of glass.

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
Yep, I remember the movie well. that was a stryker frame. That was a true story, very sad in the end. Remember the iron lung?

I have seen it probably 3 times, perhaps more, and my gosh, every time I see it I cry!!! Of course Beau Bridges was not too shabby back then lol

Yep I sure do remember the iron lung! Yikes!

There is a part II from that movie, did you ever see it? I don't think I did.

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
... Nothing like flipping a patient while they have tongs and cervical traction... scary.

YES! and they would kind of "jerk" as they locked into place, wouldn't they?

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
My 1st encounter was a pt w/draining abd fistulae. We could turn him prone so the bile could just drain w/o being on his skin for extended time. We put a chux under him.

S'cuse me, but, EWWWW!

re: iron lungs--

-adults who had had polio as children, they can have resp insufficiency if they have any bad resp viruses, colds, etc. The hospital I used to work, we had the only iron lung left in the county and we would occassionally get one of those pts. They much preferred going into the iron lung than being intubated, etc. They could probably be managed now w/some sort of non-invasive vent assistance. So, even into the 1990's that iron lung got used once in a while.

Here is an interesting passage from User:Richard Hill - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At the turn of the century, the American inventor Thomas Alva Edison [[13]] said; "Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration." This brief history illustrates "inspiration" in many senses of the word. This [iron lung] technology supports life in the form of physical and active inspiration of air into human lungs, and also the inspiration of the brain, the breathtaking genius of those who brought artificial ventilation from Dr Dalziel's 1832 apparatus through 160 years of research and development to the micro-processor based ventilators of the 1990's, tracing not only the history of the iron lung but perhaps witnessing the birth of Biomedical Engineering [[14]]...

.. Finally, there is of course, artistic inspiration. Iron lungs have been featured in fiction: Dick Francis [[15]], 'Forfeit'; in autobiography: Mimi Rudulph, 'Inside the iron lung'; in newspaper headlines: The Times, 'Baby born to patient in iron lung'; and perhaps most astonishingly in rock n' roll: Big Pig [[16]], 'Iron Lung'.

The last word should go to those 'Responauts' for whom life was not only enhanced, but even made possible by this technology :

“Very soon several doctors and nurses came in and wheeled my bed into another room, a big one. Quickly I was lifted onto a narrow trolley type bed, and the entire thing with me on it was pushed into a huge long white box, rather like a coffin on legs. I was completely encased except for my head. Then my neck was fastened into a kind of rubber collar and the whole machine was closed up. At that moment there was a tremendous feeling of pressure inside the box. It was breathing for me, but I didn't understand at all.” Phyll Western* 1955 aged 15

“I know that I'm lucky to be alive. I'm also very aware that, if it hadn't been for the Respiratory Unit in London, I probably wouldn't be.” Phyll Western* 1992

or perhaps the last word should go to William Wordsworth [[17]]:

"And now I see with eye serene, The very pulse of the machine; A being breathing thoughtful breath; A traveller betwixt life and death".

QUESTION: Wasn't there a hyperbaric oxygen therapy (besides a ventilator, intubation, etc), that helped replace the iron lung?

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
You are working on the top floor of a hospital in California and during an earthquake the IV bottles clink against the metal because they are made of glass.

Well, it could be from an earthquake, or from a clumsy nurse! (ME)

I dunno about you but there was something theraputic about spiking those bottles, hee hee hee (except when you spiked yourself... YOWCH~!)

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

The Times, 'Baby born to patient in iron lung';

"Good Housekeeping" not that long ago had an article interview with the "baby" who was born. She was talking about her mother in that artcle. Wish i could remember what month that came out, i remeber the pictures they used very clearly.

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
"Good Housekeeping" not that long ago had an article interview with the "baby" who was born. She was talking about her mother in that artcle. Wish i could remember what month that came out, i remeber the pictures they used very clearly.

I always liked Good Housekeeping, my mom used to get it and many other "Housekeeping" type magazines, lol - does that make me "old" too? BTW it didn't teach me anything, I just liked looking at the food and "other people's" good taste!

How old is the "girl" now?

Specializes in private duty, nursing home, corrections.

It takes longer to go from sitting to standing

and even longer to stand up straight

You can't run down those corridors anymore

You can only limp slowly down those corridors

Your thumbs ache constantly trying to punch those pills out of those cards:uhoh3:

The light never seems bright enough when you're trying to chart

You have trouble using your hands

You have no discernable strength in your wrists

Your shift just started 20 minutes ago, and your normal aches and pains have already started in,

When you can't seem to concentrate on the 13 things at one time like you used to.

When the noise level in the nursing home gives you an almost irrestiable urge to smash the call light system.:angryfire

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