OK- need some help with ancient nursing history

[xtxrn]

When did sharps containers show up... I don't remember them in nursing school, but they must have been there....(1983-1985)

What about IV pumps for just about everyone?

I do know about Pyxis- the vendor filled the thing with candy to get us to practice with it before actually putting it into service :)

I feel old....for my next birthday, I may ask for carbon dating

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

"Almost 100 percent of the safety features introduced in the 1980's came about due to AIDS. Sadly ironic benefit of that awful disease"

Sad, but true. When I first worked in ICU, we didn't wear gloves to start IVs, suction patients, empty gastric suction containers, any of that. Most gloves were sterile and then just used to protect the patient from infection, not the staff. Within a few years, we were all wearing gloves, masks and even goggles/eye shields. Even when working in L&D at first, gloves weren't mandated or widely available in boxes like they are today. I remember having to scrape the vernix from a newborn from under my fingernails after a delivery, when I was the one to dry off, assess, band and print the baby.

:barf01:

Yeah- the universal precautions and onset of never doing anything "wet" (or gross) without gloves was during the time I was going to school and the first couple of years out.... it was nothing to deal with a code brown in bare hands, and have that smell cling no matter how much I washed my hands... this included GI bleed poop.... bleecchhhhh .

Suctioning was a bit different since the cath came with the single glove and plastic bag inside an unfoldable stiff paper 'cup'....

[Terry Grimmond]

osterman was the first to advocate use of commercial sharps containers in 19751 and the emergence of hiv was an added concern when cdc in 1983 first recommended hospitals adopt facility-wide use of, "...puncture-resistant disposal units..".2

1. osterman ca. relation of new disposal unit to risk of needle puncture injuries. hosp topics 1975; 53:12-13

2. cdc guideline for infection control in hospital personnel. centers for disease control and prevention, atlanta georgia. http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/p0000446/p0000446.asp. access confirmed oct 4, 2009

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

But the difference is they are now single use. The glass syringes used for ABGs and injection prior to 1985, as with many other pieces of equipment, were reused. We also had buckets of Cidex, along with some other chemicals now labeled harmful to one's health, for some equipment to be cleaned by the staff after use. Nothing like getting a nebulizer with lipstick stains on the mouthpiece that wasn't your shade.

We also mixed medications for IVs and nebulization without much protection. This included Ribavirin and Pentamidine which at that time came in crystals to be mixed just prior to administration. We were also a little lax on using scavengers or isolation precautions for these meds when they were being nebulized also.

I had taken a friends' newborn boy to my doc for a circumcision (Medicaid doesn't cover tip trims:D). She really wanted it done, but she couldn't watch, so was in the waiting room. I was waiting for the doc to come in, and the baby was a bit restless- if he only knew- and spit his pacifier out in a perfect arc.... it landed in a bucket of Betadine solution, along with the USED speculums (full service doctor). After said procedure, I took the baby back out to the waiting room- still whimpering a bit- the doc was humane, and did use lidocaine on the little guy...his mom asked about the pacifier. She got a little pale, and asked if we could stop at the drugstore and pick up another one on the way home... Sure, no problem :)

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

Anybody remember the reusable needles (went with the large glass syringes)....had to be sterilized and SHARPENED- lol

[LR59]

OK now Im going to date myself who remembers metal bedpans and their washing stations if there was an automatic BP cuff we never saw it in nursing school IV pumps were fairly new only used in ICUs Very little was disposable and I do remember slicing off the needle tip Also the practice of jamming an IV catheter in a mattress to keep it safe wonder how many pts got stabbed My how we have changed and it was all because of infectious disease control

[LR59]

Hey when you get your dino get me one too I like mine autoclaved for tenderness Lord hadnt thought of dial a flows in eons we used to mix all our piggybacks insulin KCl and all wow where did time fly??????

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

Hey when you get your dino get me one too I like mine autoclaved for tenderness Lord hadnt thought of dial a flows in eons we used to mix all our piggybacks insulin KCl and all wow where did time fly??????

LOL

I know- time does fly

I remember when there were very few IVs that had additives that we didn't add ourselves- including IVPB antibiotics. Just got a label and slapped that puppy up on the pole.

Dinos-R-Us has a sale every 50,000,000 years !!!

[LisaMR]

I never took care of diabetics when working but do remember in school clinicals having patients that were diabetic. We gave sliding scale insulin based on urine glucostix results in the early 80's. What shade the strip was determined how much insulin was given. The early accucheck machines changed all of that for the better.

Now as the mom of two kids with diabetes, the thought of giving them insulin that way makes me shudder.

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

I never took care of diabetics when working but do remember in school clinicals having patients that were diabetic. We gave sliding scale insulin based on urine glucostix results in the early 80's. What shade the strip was determined how much insulin was given. The early accucheck machines changed all of that for the better.

Now as the mom of two kids with diabetes, the thought of giving them insulin that way makes me shudder.

Yeah- it's amazing more people didn't tip over d/t those diastix. :)

The sliding scales today (if the doc comes up with them without patient input) are also scary- but at least the blood sugars are more accurate than dipping into stale urine!

I've learned a lot re: insulin and HOW different it is for each person. The nurses I had would be fairly horrified if I still wanted my Lantus, if my hs blood sugar was good Yes- that's what keeps it good :) They were a good group, and included me in my care (so many places just act like the body in the bed is a nuisance they have to put up with- not WHY they have a job ). But it would make them nervous !! Didn't have any problems, except for one 'mild' low- and I caught that myself, and had stuff at the bedside- then called to tell them.