I was admitting a patient the other night into the PICU, and the parents were VERY anxious. Rightfully so. Our attending, in an effort to make them more at ease, said, "Meanmaryjean has been a nurse for over thirty years and is our most experienced nurse!"
As is sometimes the case, I discovered that I have been a nurse longer than the parents have been alive. But it got me thinking, so I offer up this thread for you 'more experienced' nurses (and those who aren't if you want).
I'll start off by saying:
I've been a nurse since before there was an internet. Before AIDS. Before Elvis died.
I was a nurse when you punched a time card, had a narc key and signed out narcotics in a spiral notebook. When you had to give up you chair for the doctor, had to wear white (hose, uniform, shoes). When postpartum mothers were housed in a ward with 8 beds with curtains and ONE bathroom (ick). The topper? It felt like normal to me.
Specializes in Medical-Surgial, Cardiac, Pediatrics.
I just got my RN, but my mother has some great stories about when she was a nurse. Before AIDS, before computers, before Y2K, before scrubs took over from the white caps and dresses. Before super bugs had started to get a foothold and surgeons threw bloody instruments at you in the OR.
Though my great-grandmother was a nurse in 1918, BEFORE the flu pandemic, when she used a horse and buggy to travel to houses in rural areas, before airplanes, before the discovery of penicillin, before Hitler, in the time of rotary telephones, before computers and calculators that fit in your pocket. She couldn't even IMAGINE the things I do today as an RN, because it's changed so much in the past 100 years.
I still appreciate having written her stories down, because that is a span of nursing perspective that must have been unbelievable to witness.
Specializes in L&D, OR, ICU, Management, QA-UR, HHC.
I've been a nurse since temperatures were taken with glass/mercury thermometers. We had fifty that we kept in a metal pan in Cidex solution and went from one end of the floor putting them under tongues. Then we went back and collected, checking the temp, shaking down the thermometer and putting all together back in the metal pan. Uggh, right? Also suture needles were not disposable, we had to "save" them from the delivery or surgical tables and clean, resharpen and sterilize. The ONLY time you wore gloves was to do a sterile procedure, if you didn't get a little blood on your hands you weren't working hard enough. LOL IV bags were glass and nothing was scarier than dropping one and glass shattering everywhere. I am old, but still at it. I've retired three times but can't stay away.
I just got my RN, but my mother has some great stories about when she was a nurse. Before AIDS, before computers, before Y2K, before scrubs took over from the white caps and dresses. Before super bugs had started to get a foothold and surgeons threw bloody instruments at you in the OR.
Though my great-grandmother was a nurse in 1918, BEFORE the flu pandemic, when she used a horse and buggy to travel to houses in rural areas, before airplanes, before the discovery of penicillin, before Hitler, in the time of rotary telephones, before computers and calculators that fit in your pocket. She couldn't even IMAGINE the things I do today as an RN, because it's changed so much in the past 100 years.
I still appreciate having written her stories down, because that is a span of nursing perspective that must have been unbelievable to witness.
It's like that show the Knick. Hospital in the early 1900's. Very scary.
I have been a nurse for two years, and I still feel like I have no experience and learn new things every day. Not one day goes by where I don't make a small error (not medications) or forget to do something. There is just not enough time in the shift to do everything expected of you. I hope that changes, someday.
I've been a Nurse since before EMR, the H1N1 outbreak, smart phones, tablets, blogs, smoking was still allowed in the workplace (but not in patient care areas, before EVERYONE wanted to be a Nurse, and before the Huge nursing shortage (that I'm still waiting to happen). It seems like a lot longer than it has been. I've loved most of it.
I forgot glass IV bottles, that we taped down the side with masking tape, of course that was after we did the math, on our own, and figured out the drip rate. Gamco suction to NG tubes, ew that green color! A med nurse that passed out the meds to the floor. Cardexes that were written in pencil, so they could be erased when it changed.
Everyone keeps putting up they were nurses since before smartphones. When I became a nurse, there no smartphones. There were a few cellular phones, think 6 pound, size of a smallish dog, and a few briefcase-style car phones that had to be plugged into the cigarette lighter to even turn on.
We did have pagers though! Lots of pagers. Sign of an experienced nurse was knowing all the important pager numbers (nsg supervisor, RT, radiology) and able to dial the hospital pager access number, followed by pager number, followed by call-back number within 10-12 seconds.
Everyone keeps putting up they were nurses since before smartphones. When I became a nurse, there no smartphones. There were a few cellular phones, think 6 pound, size of a smallish dog, and a few briefcase-style car phones that had to be plugged into the cigarette lighter to even turn on.
We did have pagers though! Lots of pagers. Sign of an experienced nurse was knowing all the important pager numbers (nsg supervisor, RT, radiology) and able to dial the hospital pager access number, followed by pager number, followed by call-back number within 10-12 seconds.
Yes, and only a few people had them....doctors and such
Since 1986!! I remember glass syringes and taping IV bags. Those darn bags would open up on you when you weren't looking. Mixing IVPBs. Can't believe I have been a nurse this long
RNIBCLC
357 Posts
I was a nurse when you punched a time card, had a narc key and signed out narcotics in a spiral notebook. When you had to give up you chair for the doctor, had to wear white (hose, uniform, shoes). When postpartum mothers were housed in a ward with 8 beds with curtains and ONE bathroom (ick). The topper? It felt like normal to me.