Nursing Hx:Share Oldtime Ineffective tx's?

bungies · Sep 19, 2002

Originally posted by kmchugh
The program outlined also included ten hours of demonstration and practice in bandaging, and a whopping two hours of classroom instruction in administration of medication, in conjunction with classes in dosage and solution.
Kevin McHugh

Two hours may actually have been enough...

My grandmother (who began nursing in 1938) is fond of telling me that they only had THREE MEDICATIONS!!! - morphine, aspirin and sulphur.

Also "A bedsore on one of your patients was more than your job was worth", and "we had to provide our own razors to shave pre-op patients, out of our tiny wages". And a shave was head to toe for most ops, so they would have gone through a lot of razors. She describes almost dragging the hair out of patients when she didn't have enough money for a new blade.

bungies · Sep 19, 2002

Originally posted by WashYaHands
Last year while cleaning out my clinic, I found a urinometer. It looks similar to a thermometer with a much bigger bulb. You submerge it in a cylinder of urine to get specific gravity.
Linda

This is a hydrometer - what we use to test the car (?bike!) battery when it seems to be flat!

Sleepyeyes · Sep 19, 2002

Originally posted by DelGR
Bucks traction-- is that still around?
...
Did any of you use Dakins (weak bleach smelling) solution for wound care?

Yes, we still use Buck's traction--mostly to keep ahip fx stable before reduction surgery.

And Dakins is great for certain types of wounds. We still use it. :)

Glad2behere · Sep 19, 2002

I remember stomping on discarded boxes and boxes of Sodium Bicarb in resuscitations. Wonder how many we really were hurting.

Dr. Kate, BSN, RN · Sep 19, 2002

Breaking needles--hard to imagine there was a time when you could be disciplined for not breaking a needle after you used it. I almost freaked out when I had one of the dogs at the Vet's office and he used one of those clip type needle breakers.

The really nasty thing about those clipper thing was they dulled really quickly then you were fighting with the thing and occ. it would flip the broken needle out at you.

What about a balanced traction for a femur fracture, on an adult. The last time I saw one of those, I swear there were ony two of us in the hospital who had ever seen or worked with one before. There's only so much you can do to keep it properly alligned when you only work 12 hrs/day, 3 days/ week.

NurseGirlKaren · Sep 20, 2002

Have been a nurse for 5 years and have seen t-tubes used for weaning within the last 3. Also, my friend who has had problems with yeast infections on her nipples while breastfeeding was advised by lactation consulant to use gentian violet (last month), and it worked!!

kaycee · Sep 20, 2002

Still use Dakins for cleaning maggots out of wounds in the ER. Works on roaches too.

kaycee · Sep 20, 2002

Also do you all remember the cardiac monitors that were small circles and only one or two QRS's could fit across at one time.

galenight, BSN, RN · Sep 20, 2002

Until about 1 year ago when this old doc retired, we were doing CVP readings by laying the patient flat for 10 minutes, then using what looked like a homade plastic thing with a level in it. You put the plastic thingy under the patient at the level of the heart and then the manometer with the red line level with the well... level. Then you opened the stopcock to fill the manometer then closed it until the ball stopped dropping and voila! you had your cvp reading. It about killed some patients to lay completely flat with no pillow, let me tell you! We still use bucks tx (5#), but so infrequently that we have to get out the manual and look like a bunch of idiots to the patient! I recall seeing a t-tube used once or twice since I started in 1997, but we rarely have vents in our small rural hospital. Oh.. and by the way.. we still use metal bedpans, emesis basins and wash basins! The patients swear we refridgerate the bedpans... drat! they are on to us!!!

night owl · Sep 20, 2002

Crank beds! Worked wonders for my hangovers after a night of partying! When I stood up, I ran to the nearest open window saying, "I need air! I think I'm going to vomit!!!"

Green soap- used this to wash out urine drainage bags...every morning!

Amphyl-used this to wash everything down

Mopping floors-always did this on evening shift

Washed our own beds once a week. HN made us bring in steel wool to rub the chrome siderails to get rid of the rust. Then we had to lift the bed frame, step inside and wash underneath where the coils were.

For the decubes we used sugar, betadine mixture, methiolate (dropped a few bottles) after we used the gooseneck lamps.

For superficial stage I decubes we placed the pt on a stretcher and stuck their butts or limb or hip in the sun for 15-20 min everyday and it healed nicely.

At one time we used the external caths connected to a connecting tube which drained into the urinals hanging on the side of the bed then dumped the urine in a big bucket. Had to do the green soap thing to the urinals every morning. Then came the drainagebags.

The clincher here is that I work with a nurse who is Chinese and she told me that when she was a little girl in China they tested the urine for glucose by placing a small amt of urine in a small bowl and then placed the bowl outside their front door. Depending on how many ants were attracted to the urine in 5 min, that's how much insulin they received...10 ants/5min.=2 units Reg Insulin, 20 ants/5 min=3 units, etc. Do you believe that???? Now there's one way to cut costs!

zudy · Sep 20, 2002

Counting the ants!! I love it!! Don't let the bean counters hear about this, tho, they would love it. :D

extremebean · Sep 20, 2002

a couple days ago one of the RN's i work with told me she remembers tasting the urine to check for spilling out sugar...........

hmmm.........TASTING THE URINE??????????????