How nursing has changed over the years...

MedSurgeMess · Sep 5, 2009

When you had a "bed sore", you got treated with Barbasol and a heat lamp, nowadays, you get a special dressing and a turn schedule.....this from my many coworkers who've been around longer than me

subee, MSN, CRNA · Sep 5, 2009

When you had a "bed sore", you got treated with Barbasol and a heat lamp, nowadays, you get a special dressing and a turn schedule.....this from my many coworkers who've been around longer than me

Hah, I'm older and I win....We rolled the patient over to a sunny window and laid him prone. This was in addition to turning, dressing changes.

nurse2be2010 · Sep 5, 2009

hmmm.. VERY interesting!!

Thanks!:wink2:

roser13, ASN, RN · Sep 5, 2009

When my husband was born (52 years ago) after an uneventful lady partsl birth, his mother stayed inpatient X 7 days, then was taken home BY AMBULANCE, carried up the stairs, and on bedrest for another week.

SweetSue16 · Sep 5, 2009

Log rolling laminectomy patients for weeks. Hospitalization for cataract surgey...feeding them, bedpan and no moving the head. Cardiac precautions, up to a rocking chair after bed rest for 7 days. I could go on and on. Graduated from nursing school 1971.

lorelei1973 · Sep 5, 2009

I'm not a nurse, but most of my friends are :heartbeat. A topic that comes up a lot with them is the use of gloves (or non-use of gloves) then vs. now. Before universal precautions, glove use was not only discouraged, but PROHIBITED for most everything except surgery itself. I don't know, I just think that's particularly fascinating (and gross).

ilovenursing2009 · Sep 5, 2009

When my husband was born (52 years ago) after an uneventful lady partsl birth, his mother stayed inpatient X 7 days, then was taken home BY AMBULANCE, carried up the stairs, and on bedrest for another week.

That is soooo funny!! I can't believe that happened!!! :chuckle

DoGoodThenGo · Sep 5, 2009

I'm not a nurse, but most of my friends are :heartbeat. A topic that comes up a lot with them is the use of gloves (or non-use of gloves) then vs. now. Before universal precautions, glove use was not only discouraged, but PROHIBITED for most everything except surgery itself. I don't know, I just think that's particularly fascinating (and gross).

I was a NA on the floors and in home care during the 1980's and yes, am here to tell you that often wearing gloves was frowned upon. Never worked anyplace where it was policy not to wear gloves, but did hear of such places.

Once when assigned to clean up a rather explosive BM (we're speaking literally from neck to back of knees), reached into my pockets and pulled out a pair of gloves (first thing I did when arriving for duty was fill my pockets with latex gloves), a nurse passing by pulled me aside and asked why I was putting gloves on, and gave my reason. Apparently she took offense because it would make the patient think there was something "wrong" with him and perhaps offend him as well. Gave the nurse a sweet look and went about my work still wearing those gloves.

Only patients one ever changed or cleaned without wearing gloves was newborns and children. Even then it was mainly because saftey pins are difficult to manage in gloves.

Penguin67 · Sep 5, 2009

Hmmm, let's see, alot has changed...

We used to manually sign our own timecards, not punch a time clock. Still wish for those days, as nurses should not have to punch in and out.

Chest tubes drained into glass jugs that you taped to the floor, not a pleuravac.

Charts were on paper, not on the computer. Those were the days!

Same thing with labs. You ordered tests on a carbon set of papers, and sent it with the specimen.

There were no Pyxis machines. You had one narcotics box, and the charge nurse kept the keys. If you went home with the keys, you returned soon after with the keys.

All unit supplies had a charge sticker, that usually ended up on your nametag or on the floor. Omnicells took care of that.

There were no nurse zone phones. There were call lights.

MRSA and VRE weren't as big of a thing. Probably around, but we didn't know much about it.

Nothing was on the computer. There was a care kardex, used for report, and a med kardex used to record all meds given. You hand wrote on these.

Most IVs were on gravity drips. And you had to calculate them. Pumps were rare.

You could take all of the styrofoam water pitchers from all the patient rooms and put them on a cart to refill the ice water from the ice machine. Now, due to infection control, you never take the pitcher back in to the ice machine, you only take plastic bags of ice ot the patient.

Heat lamps were used pospartally to assist with healing of the perineum. You set up the heat lamp on the bed, then placed a cradle -like cage around it and covered it with the blanket, to provide for privacy. What a fire hazard!

NCLEX was a two day ordeal. Paper and pencil. Most state had one site, and larger states had more than one site. Given twice a year only. New grads got temporary licenses until results were known. NCLEX was for 12 hours, two 3-hour sessions each day. Then, you waited about 8 weeks to get your results in the mail.

Twelve hour shifts pretty much weren't anywhere utilized as they are now. It was standard to work 7-3, 3-11 or 11-7. Some straight shifts, and some got rotating schedules. And I honestly didn't see the level of burnout and call-ins that we see today on 12 hour shifts.

Those are just a few things that I'm recalling for now.May write some more later... :-)

Rook · Sep 5, 2009

I remember just 20 years ago that nurses were able to smoke at the nurses station b/c you wouldn't want to expose those patients to 2nd hand smoke you know. :up:

DoGoodThenGo · Sep 5, 2009

Hmmm, let's see, alot has changed...
We used to manually sign our own timecards, not punch a time clock. Still wish for those days, as nurses should not have to punch in and out.
Chest tubes drained into glass jugs that you taped to the floor, not a pleuravac.
Charts were on paper, not on the computer. Those were the days!
Same thing with labs. You ordered tests on a carbon set of papers, and sent it with the specimen.
There were no Pyxis machines. You had one narcotics box, and the charge nurse kept the keys. If you went home with the keys, you returned soon after with the keys.
All unit supplies had a charge sticker, that usually ended up on your nametag or on the floor. Omnicells took care of that.
There were no nurse zone phones. There were call lights.
MRSA and VRE weren't as big of a thing. Probably around, but we didn't know much about it.
Nothing was on the computer. There was a care kardex, used for report, and a med kardex used to record all meds given. You hand wrote on these.
Most IVs were on gravity drips. And you had to calculate them. Pumps were rare.
You could take all of the styrofoam water pitchers from all the patient rooms and put them on a cart to refill the ice water from the ice machine. Now, due to infection control, you never take the pitcher back in to the ice machine, you only take plastic bags of ice ot the patient.
Heat lamps were used pospartally to assist with healing of the perineum. You set up the heat lamp on the bed, then placed a cradle -like cage around it and covered it with the blanket, to provide for privacy. What a fire hazard!
NCLEX was a two day ordeal. Paper and pencil. Most state had one site, and larger states had more than one site. Given twice a year only. New grads got temporary licenses until results were known. NCLEX was for 12 hours, two 3-hour sessions each day. Then, you waited about 8 weeks to get your results in the mail.
Twelve hour shifts pretty much weren't anywhere utilized as they are now. It was standard to work 7-3, 3-11 or 11-7. Some straight shifts, and some got rotating schedules. And I honestly didn't see the level of burnout and call-ins that we see today on 12 hour shifts.
Those are just a few things that I'm recalling for now.May write some more later... :-)

Oh My Goodness! You just took me back!Lab test on carbon paper, kardex, gravity IVs and caculating drip rates (a skill that should always be kept accurate, never know where you will end up during your career). Filling water pitchers (had all sorts in my day, including metal), from the ice machine. Never minded 8 hour shifts, indeed it worked well for single and married mothers because if one had things worked out down to a science, child care was a bit easier, especially if one's children were of school age.Narcotics box required a reporting off and count by nurse handing over the keys to whomever was her relief.