So after my terrible night in a nursing home and my 2 weeks of trying to look like I knew what I was doing on a GI floor. I decided I would join the hospital nurse Bank as they were called in those days which equates to float nurse.
I returned to the hospital where I trained and where I felt comfortable, quickly I was working 5 days a week. No such thing as 12 hour shifts in those days your week consisted of earlies, lates and half days. If you were lucky you would get your half day before your days off. If you were not so lucky you hoped you would get an early before your day off and a late after your days off.
As a bank nurse you turned up for work and were sent anywhere in the hospital to work except Maternity, in the UK you can only work on a maternity floor if you are a Midwife.
We worked 7.30-16.30 and 12.30-21.30, night shift was 21.15-0730. We didn't clock in you just turned up for work and were paid! You went on break after the afternoon shift arrived and recieved report.
Everybody from the morning shift went on break together. In those days if you were a smoker you actually had a section of the cafeteria where you could sit in comfy chairs and smoke! A lot of health care professionals smoked in those days and openly.
So what did we wear to work? In the UK at that time nurses all wore the same (apart from the male nurses of course) We wore royal blue dresses with belts and special silver buckles which you bought when you 'qualified' as a RN or RGN as we were called (Registered General Nurses). If you were higher up the food chain you wore Navy Blue dresses. If you were a SEN (State Enrolled Nurse) you wore green.
Black lace up shoes with non slip soles. Tights or stockings which could be black or flesh colored depending on what the hospital policy stated.
I have to say in the UK when I left 6 years ago we still wore black lace up shoes, I had never worn sneakers to work until I came to the US. I still prefer the shoes LOL
All hair if it touched your collar had to be tied up-no exceptions. It still gets on my last nerve when any healthcare professional has long flowing locks, which drape into everything.
Later on in the 90's we all changed to Tunics and Trousers which were far more practical. The color code didn't change so it was easy to identify who was who!
Everybody wore navy blue trousers and the tunics were royal blue for staff nurses and navy blue for Managers.
We had 7 weeks paid vacation per year and 6 months full pay for sickness and 6 months half pay. After this time you were unpaid but not terminated!
You called the Charge Nurse 'Sister' there wasn't a lot of male nurses around in those days. We had junior sisters and senior sisters. They were the font of all knowledge, they didn't do a lot of work but they knew everything they amazed me.
There appeared a lot more hierarchy in those days and a very defined career structure.
The charge nurse of the day would do the rounds for all the patients, then report to the RN's what needed doing for the patient. We wrote everything in a 'round book' which was like the holy grail to all nurses.
The routine for the day was very defined you would do the morning drugs after report, all vital signs were done by student nurses and reported back immediately.
Pts were given breakfast then everybody was given without exception either a bowl with everything they needed for a wash, or a full bed-bath. Every male pt was shaven.
Beds were made and pts sat out beside their beds by 11 am!
If you worked on a surgical ward pts who were to go to the OR were given a hibiscrub bath and shaven in the area of surgery if required, then they were given a hospital gown to wear.
In the UK you wear your own pj's or night dresses in hospital, only the pts who have nobody to bring in clean night clothes in for them, wear hospital gowns. There were washing machines in the sluice room on some floors so you would wash dirty clothes if you needed to. You never put soiled clothes in a plastic bag for the relatives to take home, you would scrub them through!
When I came to the US I thought everybody was either poor so couldn't afford night clothes or they were all without family and friends to provide clean night wear!
None of these mundane tasks were left to the late staff, the ward had to be ship shape before they came on duty!
After lunch pts were allowed back into bed to sleep or rest and the ward was quiet and peaceful. The doors to the ward were closed.
There were strict visiting hours, which were in the afternoon. Normally 14.00-1600 then an evening time of 18.30-20.00
Visitors waited in the corridor for the doors to open then they would visit their loved ones! At end of visiting time somebody would ring a bell to announce end of visiting times and everybody would be expected to leave!
There were few exceptions to these rules and the charge nurse of the shift would decide if the pt could be disturbed.
It was great for the RN's you could get so much work done when you don't have pestering visitors. The patients also got a lot of rest which was undisturbed by the visitors.
We didn't have TV's by pt's beds instead you had a TV lounge for the patients. Pts would meet in the TV lounge-Lifelong relationships and friendships were formed.
Pts staying in hospitals a lot longer as well in those days.
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At least a week for an appendix removal!
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2 weeks for Gall Bladder
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3-4 days for a Tonsillectomy
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5 days following a normal birth, longer if needed
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C/S 10 days
Nearly every pt when leaving the floor would buy a huge box of chocolates for the nursing staff, I never knew a time when there wasn't chocolates or cookies to eat. We would moan and complain we were sick of some of the type of chocolates, because the pts would get us the same large tins. If we got something different we would be like pigs raiding the tin.
Sometimes we would get so many, they would be locked away until Christmas.
Some of the patients or relatives would donate money to the floor for the staff Christmas party, and even donate large bottles of alcohol!
When I came to the US I was surprised that the boxes of cookies or chocolates were few and far between.
Now if you are reading this and thinking OMG this is back when Florence Nightingale was a young woman-No we are talking the 1990's!
