Let's play I Remember When.....

[RNSue]

I think it would be a good idea and fun for any nurse who has been working for, oh let's say 15+ years, to post a message for the younger and/or less experienced nurses, so they can see where us veteran nurses are coming from. What do you think??? I'll start it off with.... I remember when it was so quiet on our full 63 bed med-surg floor on the night shift that I could hardly stay awake!...when there was a unit clerk on the night shift! ...when the patient's bed side tables, overbed table, and shelf in the bathroom had to cleared of all personal care items at all times and had to be in the drawers and be labeled with their names in black marker!...when it was required to wear our little white nurse's hats!...when hair couldn't touch our collars!...when we had to stand when a doctor came into the room!... when there was a shift charge nurse who rounded with the doctor and wrote all his orders down on a notepad and then came back to the station and wrote the orders on the chart, handed them to the unit clerk and then checked them off!(what happened to that person!?)...when a patient was admitted the night before so she could have a douche administered in the AM before her GYN surgery...when we had aides who stocked, cleaned, AND answered lights...when we used up one entire monthly staff meeting and half of the next month's meeting debating how we could get ice water to the patients without A. contaminating the kitchen, B. contaminating the cart used to push the ice bucket around with, C. contaminating the ice scoop, and D.wasting time!...when we put sugar in wounds and taped an oxygen mask over it!...when we could get all our work done, sit around and have a conversation with our co-workers,chart and still get out on time!...Work an entire night shift as the med nurse and give only two PRNs for the whole shift!(63 pts)...When we had time to clean out drawers and wipe the counters down(at least 3 times a week)!... I've been a nurse since 1978, not so long ago,considering I still have about the same amount of time left to go before I retire!!This career is a trip and a half!!!

[505rn]

Thank you all so much for this! I really enjoyed reading it and vaguely remember a few things like the MOM and sugar and wounds from my earliest CNA days! I have only been in nursing for 13 years and only 6 of those as an RN but reading this inspired me and I posted about you and other peers sharing these wonderful memories and stories with the rest of the world (in the form of a Chicken Soup for the Nurses Soul book) I think it would be great for us and for the "cause" (improving patient care). It is thanks to you all that we have the wonderful heritage that we are now fighting to maintain!

[Enright]

I am an RN since 87 but a CNA since 79....The thing that was most different then was LTC...I distinctly remember older patients who RETIRED to nursing homes; nothing physically wrong, that was their retirement plan. They'd be on the same wing as people with dementia or terminal illnesses. When I was a CNA back then I remember the RNs being forced to run clysis bottles on terminal patients and all muttering "this is so stupid".

For my RN career, I remember all RN staffs in acute care, having a unit clerk and supervisor on nights as well as a respiratory therapist & pharmacy tech. Those things sure vanished in the hospitals I know!

[LOPAIDNURSE]

THIS TOPIC MADE ME SMILE! I REMEMBER BEING PAID 5.27/HR IN 1978. I FLOATED OUT OF THE NURSING OFFICE ON NOCS TO ALL AREAS OF THE HOSP EVEN ICU AND I HADN'T TAKEN MY BOARDS YET. I REMEMBER GETTING YOUR ACTUAL SCORE ON YOUR NURSING BOARDS NOT JUST A PASS/FAIL. I CAN REMEMBER HAVING TO GIVE UP A PARTICULAR CHAIR TO A CERTAIN DR. WHENEVER HE MADE ROUNDS AND YOU HAD BETTER MADE SURE HE DID NOT HAVE TO SPEAK FOR IT! I REMEMBER THE FEAR I HAD OF THE CHARGE NURSES. I REMEMBER THE TIME I HAD TO SPEND WITH MY PATIENTS. I STILL THINK ABOUT THE MEALS AND BREAKS I HAD. TIME AND PLENTY OF IT - THAT I MISS THE MOST. THANKS FOR THE STROLL DOWN THAT LANE.

[Cathy RN]

I remember

1.When a doctor told me it actually told me to obtain an accurate temperature the glass thermometer had to be left in 8 minutes. Even then I laughed.

2. When we mixed what was similiar to TPN on the floors. It said we had to mix it under a hood even then. The hood, you ask.....a sheet attached to a upper cupboard the reached the floor. You would get under the sheet and mix the soultion.

3. When we were in the Nursery we would let newborns suck on our knuckles. Yuck.

4. When we were in nursing school we had a cerfew-2230 hrs every night with two late passes or overnight passes every two weeks. And a house mother that made sure we were tucked away in our beds.

5. When you were only allowed to wear you nursing uniform always dresses and you couldn't have your knees showing.

[[email protected]]

What a hoot. I remember working as a nurses aide and having to do "enemas until clear" at 5AM for all the BE preps..whether our patients wanted them or not. One morning, when I was the ONLY aide working 11-7, I had FIFTEEN of them! How times have changed.....

[laurasc]

Oh gee...this is great! I graduated in 1985. I remember soap suds enemas till clear for our poor pre-op patients....litres and litres of it. I also remember glass syringes and how in some of them the plunger fell out. (Did that with demerol once.. ) I remember the crank beds that didn't go up or down...they were fixed at one level...high...and patients had to climb UP to get in. I remember glass chest tube bottles with rubber tubing sitting on the floor. And last but not least, I remember these awful NG tube bottles made of fibreglass(?) attached to suction that had a nasty habit of exploding when we tried to open it.

Laura

[panda_181]

I am a nursing student, but reading these makes me miss the old times! I also work on a Long Term Care Unit as an NA so I know what the conditions are like now. ONe of the things that really surprised me were the comments on how elderly people would admit themselves during the winter or because they liked the chicken! Unbelievable. Keep it coming, I love this!

Amanda

[Gudnurse]

Graduated from a diploma nursing school in 1968. No one in school could be married prior to 1965. In 1965 two married former dropouts were allowed to return. Pregnancy and being a student were out of the question.

Most of my experience was in Peds and OB. Aspirin was used 98% of the time. Tylenol 2% for reducing fevers. (Aspirin did work better). Children were admitted for suspicion of pinworms. At 5am the night nurse had to check the orifice (with a flashlight) for pinworm eggs. After all, pinsworms only laid eggs at night, in the dark. Chloromycetin (anti-infective) was handed out in Peds like penny candy, until they figured out it could cause leukemia. No kids were life-watched to a bigger and better institution. If they needed ICU, we moved them to a private room and staffed it 24 hours with our usual help. Duties were redistributed. All hospitals smelled like ether. If you couldn't get a fever down after aspirin and sponging, you did a cool tap water enema. When beds were made, the pillow case opening ABSOLUTELY had to be facing away from the door. OR WHAT???? In labor and delivery, you rarely saw tubes or lines. Nurses were trained to feel, listen, observe. You always knew when something wasn't right. You didn't need a monitor. Your ear was trained to listen WELL. Dads were not in the delivery room. They could see their newborns for 20 minutes after mom returned to the room. Dad was then banished from the room anytime baby came to see mom. He couldn't even be in the room when baby was being dressed to go home. Although, 10 minutes later they all rode the elevator together to exit the hospital. Nursing students lived next door to the hospital in a dormitory. If you wanted to see another delivery to learn more, you could tell the OB department and they would call when the woman was in transition. Nights and week-ends. I saw 26 deliveries while a student. Today's students sometimes see 1....on a film. The soonest we could take stateboards after graduating in May was August. It took 2 days and we tested in 4 areas. We had go to a test site 3 1/2 hours away. Kids were in traction for broken legs for 6 weeks. Between muscle spasms and confinement, they were BRATs. Worked Saturdays in my family doctors office. Methamphetamine tablets were in gallon jars. The doctor might tell me, "package up 30 of them and mark packet, take 1 daily for suppression of appetite". Doctor also had a bottom desk drawer full of pharmaceutical samples. One day he said, Take anything you want and throw the rest out. I took a shoe box of Darvon, Darvocet, Valium. Never used the Valium, but I was the most popular student in the building when anyone had a headache. Gave my boyfriend a Darvon when he smashed his finger one night after we had been drinking a few (2-3) beers. The Darvon and beer about did him in. He had to crawl up my apartment steps on all fours to go home. Yes, I let him drive. No one ever discussed drug interactions in those days.

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[bbnurse]

I graduated in the sixties and wore dresses until the 80's with that dirty hat. I remember skin care treatments with benzoin and heat lamps, sugar with ivory soap flakes, sugar and 4X4's, betadine, etc. It was not unusual to have a full house and be the only RN with a CNA or LPN. Autoclaving needles, syringes, bedpans and all catheters. Making formula in the nursery and warming up bottles just right. Mothers who spent days never getting out of bed. Does anyone remember using diathermy for back ailments? How about no ice water for cardiac pts.? Bland diets or a sippy diet for ulcers. Shock blocks for raising the foot of the bed with hemorrhages or shock. Being the one administering the ether for a surgery. Doing a blood count for the lab person who didn't want to come through the snow. NO one had IV's routinely. Then we used the metal needles and glass bottles with the armboards cause the only veins we could hit were antecubital. We weren't trained for it. We gave MGSO4 with 6 in needles DEEP IM. I once had a pt with chest tubes which were connected to bottles on the floor but also to the running water at the sink to keep the appropriate pressure and was terrified all night. Remember using rectal tubes taped into a specimen bottle for gas relief? ICU was so new, we weren't trained in it. CPR was new---we only learned artifical respiration. We charted with red, blue and green inks. Dr's were treated like gods and thought they were. Oh, yeah, that one isn't just from then..

The pharmacy was a locked room with bottles from which you would retrieve the meds you needed for that pt for that admission. There was no Resp. care, EKG tech, or Rehab, Physical therapy was a nursing function. You had to have an order for oxygen or suctioning. Oh my. Times they have been achanging....THANK GOODNESS. Great posting.

[moonchild20002000]

I graduated in 1973. My first job was in L+D. I remember greensoap,Penthrane masks,lady partsl delivery of breechs,ether,washing and steralizing our instruments,not using gloves,BUCCAL PITOCIN,fetoscopes,pts. climbing out of bed,confused because of the scopolamine we used,bagging baby for 3hours because we did not have vents,3Henemas,counting the drops per minute on a pitocin drip,pelvimetry,the excitement I felt when we started doing Lamaze deliveries.I recall that I just couldn't wait for my shift to begin,I loved it! After all these years I still love the profession that I chose!

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[Ullis]

Originally posted by JillR:

This is a great idea. However now I have a question. Why the sugar in a wound, what is the rationale for that, and the O2 mask?

hello!

We still use sugar, but not so often! The bacteria eat so much of it so they die. Im not sure it is true but it works sometimes! Maybe the 02 worked like "speed" for the bacteria so they would eat ever more and die sooner!!

Ullis

[Sable's mom]

WOW! THIS POST SURE BRINGS BACK MEMORIES. I GRADUATED IN '77 AND REMEMBER GLASS IV BOTTLES - YES I BROKE A FEW, MED TRAYS - WHAT A MESS WHEN THEY WERE BUMPED. I WORKED IN A NURSERY AFTER BOARDS - COULDN'T WORK A SPECIALTY UNIT UNTIL BOARD RESULTS WERE BACK (SEPT AFTER JULY BOARDS). ANYWAYS, I REMEMBER THE NURSERY HAVING 'VIEWING HOURS' WHEN ALL INFANTS WERE BACK IN THE NURSERY LINED UP IN ROWS AND VISITORS (EVERYONE EXCEPT MOM) COULD SEE THE BABY. BABIES WENT OUT FOR FEEDING TIMES - WOE TO THE BABY WHO DIDN'T EAT ON SCHEDULE - MOMS STAYED 3-4 DAYS AND THERE WAS TIME FOR BATHING CLASSES, FORMULA CLASSES, BREASTFEEDING CLASSES.

PORCELAIN SITZ BATHS DOWN THE HALL.

I ALSO REMEMBER STANDING FOR DOCTORS, WEARING CAPS, DRESS UNIFORMS - ORTHO WAS A TREAT IN A DRESS.

WHILE I HAVE MOVED MANY TIMES AND WORKED EVERYTHING FROM LEVEL3 NICU - RURAL L&D, I STILL LOVEMY JOB AND SPEND AS MUCH TIME AS POSSIBLE WITH MY OB PATIENTS.

THANKS FOR ENCOURAGING THIS TRIP DOWNN MEMORY LANE.