Nursing 10 years ago

Nurses General Nursing

Published

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

Specializes in Diabetes ED, (CDE), CCU, Pulmonary/HIV.
Okay - maybe someone can clarify this one for me, but 10 years ago urine caths were sterile. Now, a nurse recently told me that they are a "clean" procedure (I'd taken a few years out of nursing, just back to Emerg). Has the whole sterile thing changed in 10 years? Or does this nurse need to go back to school?

In the hospital it's still a sterile procedure. However, if it's home health nursing and you are teaching a pt or family member to do sraight cath, it's a clean procedure. They even wash and reuse the catheters after they have air dried.

Specializes in CT ,ICU,CCU,Tele,ED,Hospice.
*waving white flag* Okay, guys....I got it, I got it!!! ER nurse, remember? I drop 'em and ship 'em!

tazzi you are way to funny .but i am with you .i am er nurse drop ngt aspirate ,air bubble to suction and away we go .my er doesn't have litmus paper .no neonates for me.

What does OP mean?

OP = Original Poster or Original Post

Okay - maybe someone can clarify this one for me, but 10 years ago urine caths were sterile. Now, a nurse recently told me that they are a "clean" procedure (I'd taken a few years out of nursing, just back to Emerg). Has the whole sterile thing changed in 10 years? Or does this nurse need to go back to school?

NO! it is a sterile procedure. I have seen a lot of this attitude as well and it probably accounts for the huge number of UTI's that develop in the hospital. A patient cathing themself intermittently in their own home is a "clean" procedure.

Hey this is slightly off topic, but since we talked NG's earlier, how many of you nurses or students have placed NG's while still in school? I haven't had the opportunity yet and am wondering if hospitals expect proficiency with this skill when you are a new grad. Obviously I know the theory and have practiced the mechanics of it on the lab dummies, but somethings just don't count until you do it on a real patient.

No, it's not accepted that all new grads will know how to drop an NG. I had the opportunity once in school, and it was a difficult one that I wasn't able to get in. New grads aren't even expected to be totally proficient in inserting foleys, although it's expected that they will have done a few as students. The main thing that new grads are expected to know is how to look up something they don't know the answer to, and how to say "I need help with that."

Thanks for making me feel better Tazzi. As a senior I have been getting more and more worried about some of the skills that I haven't had the chance to do yet (NG, Trach care). Probably I am just getting prematurely anxious about graduation this coming Spring.

Relax, you're on the same level as any other about-to-graduate nursing student!

Specializes in Trauma acute surgery, surgical ICU, PACU.

There are more obese and morbidly obese patients than there were when I started.

Medication safety has improved with making sure pharmacy is in the loop, Pyxis and unit dosing. Before, we had shelves of medications in our med room, and when a med was ordered, the nurse could just pull it off the shelf. Now, pharmacy have to see the order, plug it into the computer, and the pyxis machine spits out the correct dose (usually).

Trach care got more simple - we don't use the trays and rinse things out any more. The inner cannula is disposable, and we use disposable chlorhexidine swabs to clean around the stoma.

Better handwashing soaps and the advent of the alcohol-based hand sanitizer for in between patients.

Less focus on keeping patients clean. Bathing and walking patients has become less of a priority. Their skin may have been washed but not rinsed properly, or not washed thoroughly enough. People are in hospital for weeks not having their hair washed. People look at me in amazement when I wash hair the "old-fashioned" way using a basin and tray in the bed, rather than the fancy disposable "shower-cap rinses". Those don't wash the DIRT or grease out properly.

Computerized charting is almost everywhere with advantages and disadvantages.

I love having MD order entry, access to labs, radiology, and other test results.

Charting on a computer is OK so long as there is space for narrative. I think checklist only is accurate for most patients.

Really dislike care planning with 900 options to choose from. And no more NANDA.

None of these time wasters are "evidence based". Did they do a clinical trial on computer care plans?

Remember when we thought a COW* was an animal?

WE got our ratio law signed in 1999, implemented in 2004.

I still haven't use the "Bed in a Bag".

* computer on wheels

I did a lot of manual BP and pulses. Dynamaps were popular, but many nurses preferred to do their vital signs without the machine.

+ Add a Comment