old skills that we do not use anymore

jasonn · Oct 6, 2004

I remembering having the apothacary system on my first dosage and solution test in first semester of nursing school. About the only thing I remember is that V grains of tylenol is equal to 325mg. The new grads on our unit had never even heard the word "apothacary"

.....

jeanrnurse · Oct 20, 2004

Actually having to figure out drip rate. There were no IV pumps
In home health - we were to teach families trach care using sterile technique.
Now, we teach them using aseptic tech. Studies showed that family members couldnt always learn sterile tech - and they were more likely to give up.

You might not want to forget that skill of calculating the IV drip rate. What do you think we would have to do if the power goes out? I bet our friends in Florida would speak to that! :chuckle Jean

General E. Speaking, RN, RN · Oct 20, 2004

We used to use something called "common sense." Now, I wonder where it went. :chuckle

haha... i wonder that myself sometimes..........

General E. Speaking, RN, RN · Oct 20, 2004

I also remember MD's ordering triple H enema's, anyone else?

(high, hot and helluva lot)

psyber2000 · Oct 23, 2004

hello,
I was wondering if you guys were doing anything different now than we did before? Like before when we would suction trach patients we would squirt NS down the trach but now after clinical study they say we don't have to that anymore because it does't work. So have you guys had any changes?

To date myself, as a student nurse, I remember using a "machine" to boil needles and glass syringes.

AdobeRN · Oct 23, 2004

And I have to admit I am amazed that palpating a B/P is not widely known among "the younger nurses" (ooohh, I hate using that term too! :chuckle)

I am in my first semester of LVN school and we were taught this - it was part of are vital sign "check off". We are also being taught conversions between metric, apothecary and household measures.

Jamie

laurakoko · Oct 23, 2004

How about the new laproscopic procedures?!?! When I became a nurse, all cholecystectomies and appendectomies were OPEN. The patients would stay for days, and now it is a 24 hour stay, or O/P! I just find it cool, how far medicine has come.

xfroggerx · Oct 30, 2004

How about a large bottle of Valium in the med cabinet. When you needed one for a patient you just took it. Making up packs for surgery. If you got the wrong count of clamps you got hell from the surgeons. Glass IV bottles. Rubber sheets on the beds. Step stools next to the beds so you could reach over the patient if you had to. Making all thos little graphs in the charts of B/ps and pulse rates in Black, blue or red ink, depending on what shift you were working. Testing the needles for burrs with cotton before you put them in the sterilizer. All temps were taken with rectal thermometers every four hours. Testing urine with those tablets that made the tube hot when it boiled and changed colors.

Trauma-tizedRN · Oct 30, 2004

About 6-8 years ago we were using a then-outdated procedure for bowel obstructions..... the cantor tube. Sink it... have 'em turn on right side for so long, then on left side for so long... i forget exactly how it went.... dangerous stuff.. it was weighted with mercury... yup.. mercury... even had one bust in a patient once. It was not pretty. I think that was the last time we used it. That old school doc just loved them though, well... almost as much as he loved taking everyone's gallbladder within a 50 mile radius...lol

OMG I forgot about those!!!

Trauma-tizedRN · Oct 30, 2004

How about alcohol drips for etoh withdrawals?

Zoiks.

Keeping the little pie-tin ashtrays emptied in the nurses station, breakrooms, and physician areas was part of the job description. I remember docs standing in the hallways havin' a smoke and discussing cases. And occasionally, when the ashtray was just a bit out of reach...a few would just drop the butts on the floor and stamp em out. Boy don't get caught not cleaning one of those up, Manager Ratchett was a real stickler about us doing our nursly duties. (and keepin' the kerosene lanterns a burnin') Manager dating the Crimean War I believe...hat and cape baby.

lindaloo51 · Oct 30, 2004

As a student, uniforms from the hospital laundry that were so stiff that they would stand alone. (a great help after those long hours)

Hospital dress code that allowed only white uniforms 3 inches above the knee and no pants. Then finally, pants uniforms, but the tops had to be finger tip length.

Yale syringe cleaner followed by ether to clean glass syringes and then having to match up all of the correct syringe parts.

Having to check the ether closet.

Getting out of a long surgical case only to find that the surgeon got to the lounge before you and smoked your last cig.

Rigid bronchoscopy and gastroscopy.

Valentine irrigators

DidiRN · Oct 30, 2004

I remember when I was a new grad, doing sliding scale insulin coverage on urine dipstick results (no fingerstick blood sugars at the time)...what a pain that was to try and get people to give us a urine sample before meals (if they were eating) to test it! :)

Sherri