The nursing profession, as a whole, as well as the role of the nurse have evolved dramatically over the past several decades. I personally have witnessed the changing face of nursing during my 30+ years in the profession. Gone are the days when nurses were thought of as little more than helpers or assistants for physicians. Today's nurses are healthcare professionals in their own right, playing an important and vital role in providing excellent healthcare.
Looking back to when I was in nursing school, and then starting my nursing career, I remember many things that are no longer in use, or things that have transformed over the years. Gone are the days of paper chart, replaced with electronic medical records. Gone are the nursing caps that distinguished the nurse from the rest of the healthcare team.
Here is a partial list of things I remember from days gone by.
Back in the day...
Team nursing
Primary care nursing
Longer patient stays (Patients were actually able to recuperate in the hospital rather than being sent home too soon. There was no such thing as same-day surgery.)
Nurses wore uniforms which consisted of white dresses, white hose, white lace-up oxford shoes, and, of course ... white nursing caps!
Only OR staff and physicians wore scrubs.
The Kardex, a large folded card, was used as an important document of all patient activities, meds, etc. And it was hand-written in pencil so it could be erased and updated as needed. Talk about document tampering!
Requisitions were composed on a typewriter.
Patients were called Mr. or Mrs.
Gloves were used for sterile procedures only. Universal precautions did not exist.
The only lifting machines we had were male aides ... and of course ourselves.
Nurses bent and broke off needles from used syringes
IV pumps were used only in Peds and ICU. Nurses had to calculate the drip rate using the second hand on their watch and a roller clamp to regulate the flow.
Heavy glass IV bottles were still in use
The charge nurse made rounds with the doctors ... and carried the heavy metal charts.
When a doctor arrived at the nurses' station, it was expected that a nurse would stand up and offer her seat....and the doctor never refused
Male nurses were very rare
Cold metal bedpans were offered to patients.
All patients were offered a daily bath and back rub
There were no fitted sheets. Remember hospital corners??
Glass thermometers were still in use.
Nurses notes and vital signs were recorded using a pen with 4 colors of ink as different colors of ink were used on different shifts. Actually, only 3 were used since there were 3 shifts.
Surgery patients were admitted the night before surgery so their preps could be started that evening.
Nurses smoked in the nurses' lounge.
Cancer was almost always a death sentence
Medicine was dispensed by the med nurse carrying a tray with small paper cups of pills and different colored med cards.
Four-year BSN programs were not as plentiful. Most nurses graduated from hospital-based Diploma or ASN programs.
State boards were 2 grueling days of exams that were completed with number 2 pencils. No computerized tests in those days.
Feel free to add items that you remember from the past, even if that past does not seem that long ago. Changes are occurring at an even faster pace in the digital and electronic age of today. What do you think of some of the changes???
No amino, no US, no Doppler. Fetal age determined by dates and when movement first felt, and X-ray to determine calcification of bone. Rectal exams to determine dilatation because lady partsl exams might cause infection. No fathers, family, or labor coach with patient. Family waited in waiting room. Every new mother and babe hospitalized a minimum of three days. Nitrous oxide, saddle block, pudendal block, twilight sleep (scopolamine)!
For those of you diploma graduates (or those who worked in a facility with a diploma program). remember the dormitory? Some of those old buildings were built at the turn of the 1900s or so. Some were so old they had community bathrooms and showers. And the lecture halls .... And there were the tunnels ...
Remember 'THE HOUSE MOTHER". She was a person to be reckoned with!! And she carried AUTHORITY!!!
There used to be a hierarchy of importance among nurses and students according to their respective schools of nursing. Top of the group was the graduate of that particular hospital's SON program. And let me tell you, if you had an older graduate as a pt, she was treated as an honored VIP! Once, had a 'graduate of the Class of 1912' and she was visited daily by the Administrator and CNO. Very intimidating!
Lowest of the pecking order was a student from a nsg program that was from some college setting, particularly the associate programs (just coming into their existence). It was like the disdain from the regular nsg staff could be palpated.
The curricula of the diploma programs sometimes had weird classes - a girlfriend had to pass SWIMMING. Her dorm had an in-house swimming pool.
Have to admit - I did like the diploma schools caps better than mine.
Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Critical Care Nursing.
Do any of you collect some of these antiquated nursing things, I.e. caps, capes, syringes etc? I just find them all fascinating and was thinking about starting a collection...
Reading through various posts about needlestick injuries and I had another 'flashback' moment. Before the days of 'Universal Precautions', remember when we routinely recapped needles, esp in facilities that require us to do 'sharps counts'. Then we all progressed to those red 'needle cruncher' boxes.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Does anyone else remember cleaning thermometers? After vital signs were taken on the floor thermometers were cleaned of any matter and soaked in alcohol or benzylkonium chloride. In four hours or when vital signs were due again, they were dried, placed in a cute little tray and passed around the floor again. Seems abhorrent looking back from today's world, doesn't it?
I remember something similar. My first hospital job all our little patients had their own glass thermometers. We washed them with cold water (you don't want to heat mercury!) and some type of disinfectant soap then stuck them back in their little holder with BAK solution. Most of our patients had their temps taken axillary with an oral thermometer. It takes a long time to do when you have 6 babies to take care of and each temp took 10 minutes to do correctly!
Not very hygienic because some nurses were not very fastidious and you'd see crud floating around in the BAK! Ew! Oral thermometers were blue, rectal were red but we were taught to always check the head of the thermometer just to be sure!
The next innovation I recall was in a clinic we saw the addition of a "Temp-away" plastic sheath you would put on the glass thermometer. They were thin and tore very easily and were pretty much useless because they encouraged people to believe they didn't need to be as careful disinfecting between patients.
Next was the "Tempa-dot" strips. I hated those things with a vengeance. Then came that glorious day when we got our first digital thermometer! It was a clunky brick-like device with a telephone cord attached to a metal probe you would cover with a plastic sheath. Those were fun because you could shoot the plastic into the wastebasket from several feet away by pressing the "eject" button. Not sure if it was called the "eject" button but that's what it did! Thermometer lore! Who knew there was so much of it!
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Nonyvole, BSN, RN
420 Posts
That looks like the uniform that my school used to have!
And I was taught how to calculate drips and then adjust the flow on the roller clamp. As a paramedic, not in nursing school!