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 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
I remember being a rather new nurse and we had MD residents as the House Officers. It was fun sometimes when I knew the treatment for a particular problem better than they did - I tried to be humble (and tactful) about it though, ha ha

I am AMAZED at all the Dougie Housers (they look like they are in 5th grade).

We have one we call "Doogie" ("I think it's funny, just don't do it in front of the pt. lol"). He's older than me, but he looks like he's 12.

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
Thank you! Unfortunately, my parents decided to get sick just as I was graduating, so I had to take this flexible NP position with awful pay just so I could be available to help my parents. After having no life for the past 4 years while I was in school, and now not being able to reap the rewards (better job, better pay). Hopefully this won't be permanent.

Ouch. Sorry to hear that!

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
I mixed meds. for pharmacy, settled staffing problems, decided if an MD would be called for a acute situation and my absolute favorite, I ran the codes. Once the code was called I had to run to the second floor and unlock and push that monster red tool/crash cart to the unit where the code was called. Then turn around and hoof it back to the lab and unlock and run back with the EKG machine. Meanwhile I would be praying that resp. therapy had already unlocked and was on the way with an ET set. Now the MD is on the telephone, an ambulance on its way to transport the patient to an acute care facility. This was a horror show each time. If I was really lucky there would just happen to be a MD making rounds in the building. I would grab and drag them with me so we could have something that resembled a resuscitation. Ah, youth, today I would tell them my license meant more to me than the supervisor pay!

I was hoofing right along with you as I read, YOWSA!

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
Occaisionally a thought just pops in my head for an avatar idea, then i seach online for one. Carol Burnett was last night's idea.

I loved her show... esp when "the boys" were trying so hard not to laugh during the skits!

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
We have one we call "Doogie" ("I think it's funny, just don't do it in front of the pt. lol"). He's older than me, but he looks like he's 12.

Just picture him naked.

Oh, wait. That's a technique for when you have to make a speech. My bad.

I forgot to mention one of the biggest benefits of being an old(er) nurse--working with young physicians. After you've been in healthcare for a few decades and are no longer intimidated by physicians, they can be great fun to joke with and gently tease (humanly, not sexually).

I worked for awhile assisting with minor surgical procedures (i.e. local, not general, anesthesia) with a number of really fun male and female surgeons (general, gyn, plastics, hand, podiatrics). I always tried to keep the conversation interesting (both with the patient and the physician) so the patient wouldn't be so focused on the procedure and to give the doc a pleasant experience in an otherwise gruelling day.

HollyVK

yeah and the younger EMT's - if only i were hmmm maybe 15 - 20 yrs younger LOL.

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
Just picture him naked.

Oh, wait. That's a technique for when you have to make a speech. My bad.

Sometimes well-worn scrubs don't hide much.

Luckily, i don't mind that on him ;)

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
Sometimes well-worn scrubs don't hide much.

Luckily, i don't mind that on him ;)

SNORK! :idea:

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.
In the elevator... oh my. How long was she in there, or did it not stop?

You reminded me of Esther in the Bible, "If I perish I perish..."

The elevator went to the 2nd floor (where the labs are), but I guess the metal made some really weird noises. God gless her (a really sweet lady), she walked back to the 6th floor. I thought I was going to have to give her O2 for a little while.

We had a couple of aftershocks from that earthquake, and a few nights later when I was asleep, I felt the bed shake--thought, Oh, another aftershock. And it went on and on... Opened my eyes and turned on the light, there's my cat, bathing. Very enthusiastically I might add. :nono: :angryfire I had to "ground" her that night!

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
The elevator went to the 2nd floor (where the labs are), but I guess the metal made some really weird noises. God gless her (a really sweet lady), she walked back to the 6th floor. I thought I was going to have to give her O2 for a little while.

We had a couple of aftershocks from that earthquake, and a few nights later when I was asleep, I felt the bed shake--thought, Oh, another aftershock. And it went on and on... Opened my eyes and turned on the light, there's my cat, bathing. Very enthusiastically I might add. :nono: :angryfire I had to "ground" her that night!

Cats ... they think they are SOOOOO funny...

Specializes in MedSurg/OrthoNeuro/Rehab/Consultant.
... and you have to hold onto the bed in order to get UP off the floor after draining a Foley into the urinal...

Which reminds me of something I just read today:

The Top 17 Surprises in "Rocky Balboa"

17> "... and in this corner, wearing the purple Depends...."

16> Rocky's training drink now a glass of EggBeaters mixed with Metamucil and a Viagra.

15> His opponent for the big match? Hilary Swank.

14> Post-conversion to Kabbalah, Rocky replaces "Yo, Adrian!" with "Oy, Adrian!"

13> Mr. T makes a cameo appearance as a waiter with one single line: "Fool, you want some chicken?"

12. (deleted)

11> Cuff and Link are long gone, but Rocky has new turtles named Lame and Sequel.

10> Heartrending scene in which Rocky breaks his hip climbing into the ring.

9> After being knocked down for a third time, a frustrated Rocky cries out, "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!"

8> The waistband on Rocky's boxing shorts almost touches his pecs.

7> A health-conscious Rocky trains by punching slabs of tofu at Whole Foods.

6> "Rocky": "Cut my eye!" "Rocky Balboa": "Cut my steak!"

5> Whenever Rocky gets a bloody nose, his corner man packs his nostrils with Gummi Bears.

4> Rocky calmly bypasses the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum and drives his Rascal up the access ramp.

3> Truly gross scene in which Rocky misunderstands the instruction to leave his stool in the corner of the ring.

2> Taking no chances this time, Rocky gets cornea transplants taken from actual tigers.

and Topfive.com's Number 1 Surprise in "Rocky Balboa"...

1> In a scene employing clever symbolism, Rocky trains by punching the carcass of a horse.

--Copyright 2006 by Chris White. Please do not forward, publish, broadcast or use in any manner without crediting "TopFive.com" - it's the right thing to do.

:chuckle

Specializes in Intensive Care Nursi.

I remember so many of these things! and I have been laughing and thoroughly enjoying these posts. I graduated in 1976.

I remember:

using a combination of vaseline and sugar on decubes; we used a wooden tongue blade to mix it and apply it on the decube

glass bottles and tubing for chest tube suction and drainage; clamping the chest tube in order to take the patient out of ICU to go to a test

the MDs refusing to write DNR orders and the RNs refusing to follow DNR orders

being in trouble with the Head Nurse if the nurse told the patient he/she had cancer

the discovery of Toxic Shock Syndrome

the discovery of Legionnaire's disease and everyone's fear of it

taking care of AIDS patients and not wearing gloves

I don't remember what we did with used needles before the stage in which we chopped off the needle and dropped it into a soft red plastic box hanging on the wall; the needles could poke through the plastic!!!!

doing urine specific gravity in ICU with a glass tube and a weighted glass that the nurse dropped into the glass tube after putting urine in the tube (I forgot the name of it)

I was in the first generation in my metropolitan area to Not be required to wear dress uniforms; I was allowed to wear white pant suits, but I had to wear white nurse shoes, no gym shoes allowed

I remember

when the nurse had to get the surgical consents and the MDs signed it some time at another location right before surgery

when the woman signed a surgical conset for radical mastectomy and did not know beforehand whether she would wake up without a breast because a frozen section biopsy was done at the start of surgery and if it indicated cancer she got the mastectomy, but if it did not, she only had a biopsy done!!!!!!!

when sometimes a woman couldn't have a hysterectomy unless her husband signed the consent and sometimes she refused surgery because she didn't want her husband to find out because some men refused to consider her a woman after that

when patients stayed in the ICU even after being DNR, because there was no place to send the patient for hospice

when cholecystectomy patients stayed on the med-surg floor for 3 weeks

when only one or two patients out of 10 had IVPB antibiotics

when there were no more than 4 RNs and 2 CNAs on 3-11 shift for 64 patients (I took care of 10 patients on a med-surg floor as a new grad); the "older" RNs protected me as much as they could; they took 12 or more patients if we didn't have 4 RNs on the floor

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