an oldie but goodie

Nurses General Nursing

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For all us ancient ones, how about remembering an oldie - aramine IV drip!

Was watching an oldie TV channel and Dragnet, Squad 51 (can't remember the real name, but it was with firemen/paramedics Gage & Desoto) and then Emergency came on. Some snakebite pt had bottomed out and was in the ER. All nurse Dixie McCall was doing was taking a manual blood pressure, handing the docs meds (that docs administered) and making phone calls.

No specific directions; just "an aramine drip".

I got the biggest kick watching the nurses walking around in their white uniform dresses and their white heeled shoes (beige pantyhose) and wearing their caps. (I am an antique nurse who loves nursing caps!).

So for you all you nurses out there, what are some of the obscure and oft forgotten meds that we all used to use at some time can you name???

Aramine precipitated this thread, but I also offer that oldie, aldomet. Any others???

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I remember (not that long ago) using pieces of tape to label every channel manually for what drip we were giving on it, then making little tape flags at the end of the lines where they plugged into the CVL to keep them all straight. Now if you program the pump the preferred way, using the "smart" database, all of the med names will display on the pump. Good luck getting anyone to do THAT though. Not nearly as fun as tape flag arts and crafts, I guess.

We still do the pieces of tape, flags at the end of the tubing AND program the pump with the drug database. Overkill.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I remember when we could actually smoke out in the open - like the floor lobby.

I remember smoking at the desk especially in nights!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Anyone remember that HUGE green monster that was the balloon pump!

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Specializes in ED; Med Surg.

The other show was "Medical Center"...my favorite show as a kid. Chad Everett was my first crush... I was so sad when he died a couple of years ago. My father used to ruin it (and all medical shows) by diagnosing the mystery disease of the week in the first five minutes of the show. Sigh.

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Specializes in retired LTC.
The other show was "Medical Center"...my favorite show as a kid. Chad Everett was my first crush... I was so sad when he died a couple of years ago. My father used to ruin it (and all medical shows) by diagnosing the mystery disease of the week in the first five minutes of the show. Sigh.
If I recall, this was the first medical show that used to show those automatic door openers on the wall that you slapped so that the doors would open as the staff would hurry into the ER/ICU/OR.

To this day, I remember that opener anytime I hit one now.

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I have not been a nurse for long and yet I remember when Darvocets were the bomb. They certainly were the prettiest pink pills ever made too.

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We still do the pieces of tape, flags at the end of the tubing AND program the pump with the drug database. Overkill.

Our pumps automatically connect to the drug database but I do this too! The flags are so helpful if you have to push or connect something new and need to check compatibility.

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Paraldehyde for alcohol withdrawal (would melt plastic syringes!) and chloral hydrate (Noctec) for sleep. Chloral hydrate was used in old movies to pour into someones's drink "slipping them a Mickey Finn".

Thank you!

Have been racking my brains to remember what Col Potter orders several cc's of for the nurse having severe DTs in the mess tent. This was the OR nurse friend of Major Houlihan that had been caught by Klinger hitting the bottle and later when confronted begged not to have it on her record as it would remove her from the OR.

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Specializes in MDS/ UR.

Remember med cards?

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And IMAGINE she wore a pant suit white nursing uniform!! PANTS?!?!?!?! It was just around that time that they allowed a female nurse to wear a white pant suit uniform--I think Nurse Dixie led the way!!

Emergency ran from 1972 until 1979. By early 1970's some hospitals had begun to allow pantsuits both out of demands from staff and in response to the changing legal landscape. The latter meaning various anti-discrimination laws and rules which stated among other things workplace and school uniforms cannot be gender specific without good reason. This meant you could no longer insist females wear skirts/dresses only and forbid trousers.

By the end of the series Dixie had ditched her cap and "let her hair down" as it were which was also something you were seeing in real life as well. Television/the media was capturing what was going on in real life nursing. If you look at various medical dramas from the 1970's through 1980's (Saint Elsewhere, Trapper John, etc...) you notice a few trends:

Younger nurses tended to wear pantsuits or separates instead of white dresses, and certainly ditched their caps. OTOH older nurses still often clung to theirs.

Head nurses, supervisors and administrators ditched their caps and often white dresses in favor of pantsuits and or separates. DONs also ditched their caps but many also got shot of whites as well and began to adopt "corporate" street attire with a lab coat.

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Did you know that the show Emergency greatly contributed to the development of the modern paramedic profession?

Back then what we know now today as paramedics didn't exist. What you had were firemen like Gage and his partner that took some extra courses but nothing like the training/education today. In response to the interest that grew out of the show paramedic programs began sprouting up all over the USA.

Here you see Gage explaining the contents and capabilities of his truck to an apt gang of nurses (who apparently had nothing better to do than stand out in the hospital parking lot)

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And did y'all remember that Dr. Joe Early's actor (Bobby Troup) was married to Nurse Dixie McCall's actress (Julie London) in real life?

And their private affairs weren't splashed all over the tabloids, either -- that would never happen in this day and age!

Don't think it was exactly a secret or anything, I mean there were a few other husband and wife couples on television back then. Mr. and Mrs. William Asher (Elizabeth Montgomery) were the power couple behind Bewitched but you'd never know it at that time from most anything related to the show.

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