Nursing 10 years ago

Nurses General Nursing

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I was just wondering what nursing was like 10years ago and how has it changed?

Specializes in critical care and er.

Quality of care was more important than TAT (turn around times)

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Specializes in 30 years IV Nurse.

I have been a nurse for 30 years and an IV nurse for 20, I have seen a lot of changes in the past 10 years.

10 years ago PICC lines were new, most patients with long term needs had a port, Groshong, Hickman or Broviac. When an IV could not be started the doctor would do a cut down to find the vien. TPN was not given by a central line. Most hospitals had large IV teams and because of this staff nurses did not have to do IVs.

Betty

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Oh, yes it is!! The hospital I just left does not carry pre-mixed bags of anything with K except for D51/2 with 40 of K. Most of our orders were NS with K, or D5NS. We took rider bags of 20 or 40 of K and pulled out what we needed, injected it into the main bag.

I can't believe that Joint, HFAP, or State allows this anymore. We were still doing this practice at the small hospital I work until about 7 years ago. Then they got a Type 1 recommendation (that what is what was called then) which was not good, and we had premixed bags within a few weeks.

Somebody needs to report this hospital for allowing this dangerous practice to continue. :nono:

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I started my nursing career in 1995 at a small rural hospital. Unfortunately, most of the changes I have seen have not been beneficial for the staff at all, and sometimes not for the pt either.

We used to do Procardia XL squirted under the tongue for HTN urgency that wasn't responding to anything else. Didn't have to have 50 reasons to justify why you were putting a pt in restraints. No HIPAA. Didn't see MRSA, VRE, and C-diff as often as today. No digital Xrays. Didn't see as many "extreme" elderly pts (older than 90)...now a week doesn't go by that I don't have a least one pt who is 90. Not as much emphasis on prediabetes and the baseline glucoses were higher before someone was dx with diabetes. Prilosec and Prevacid hadn't been on the market very long. A lot of lay people didn't have the internet yet to self dx them or their family members. ;) Defibrillators with paddles instead of patches.

Some of the things that have improved is that CTs and MRIs are quicker nowadays. Patients with acute MIs go to the cath lab quicker now for stenting. Stroke protocols.

I am tired. I will come back to this later.

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