an oldie but goodie

[amoLucia]

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???

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

Glass mercury thermometers. Phisohex cleanser. My mother was so scared we would get impetigo, she washed us down every night with phisohex, until they took it off the market. Then they came out with Phisoderm, which didn't have the same ingredient in it. Looks like I survived mercury poisoning (playing with the mercury from broken thermometers), swallowing a big spoonful of Vick's vaporub whenever we got a cold, being painted with mercurochrome. We boomers are a tough bunch!

[Do-over, ASN, RN]

My school's cap (RN) has only one stripe.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Watching the show as I type!

I thought two stripes was to signify charge nurse as well; I hope someone can confirm or deny this.

Each school has a cap specific to their program. I went to Purdue as well....our caps had one black stripe while we were in school. We got our second yellow stripe down the middle of the black one signifying our new status. Then we had the pinning ceremony when we got our pins....I still have and wear my pin. Each pin was also specific to the school.

My older sister graduated from a diploma program. They had no caps as first year. They went through a capping ceremony with a plain white cap their second year. They got one stripe their senior year to easily identify what year the student was.....they got the last stripe when graduating along with the pinning ceremony.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

My school's cap (RN) has only one stripe.

I have one stripe with my school color, burgundy, when I had my PN ceremony; granted, our pinning ceremony was done in great tradition.

[Ruas61, BSN, RN]

We got hats our first year than a strip year 2 &3.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Glass mercury thermometers. Phisohex cleanser. My mother was so scared we would get impetigo, she washed us down every night with phisohex, until they took it off the market. Then they came out with Phisoderm, which didn't have the same ingredient in it. Looks like I survived mercury poisoning (playing with the mercury from broken thermometers), swallowing a big spoonful of Vick's vaporub whenever we got a cold, being painted with mercurochrome. We boomers are a tough bunch!

Oh my goodness I though I was the only one who played with the mercury....LOL. We would play with it on nights.

I remember having to mercury calibrate the monitors. I remember using ICED saline to do cardiac outputs before the thermistor became sensitive enough to sense the temperature change...AND having to do ALL of the calculations by hand.

My Mom would give us paragoric when we were sick...she swears she would never give us opium...LOL I remember putting iodine or Mercurochrome in baby oil and lay out in the sun...I'm of Irish descent....

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

I still fight the urge to 'shake down' a thermometer now and again.

[Cuddleswithpuddles]

Rubbing alcohol baths for fevers were a staple during my childhood in the Philippines. Were they ever popular in the US and elsewhere?

Damn, I still remember that cooling sensation but the fumes. The fumes!

[amoLucia]

I remember tincture of benzoin - used to apply it to boney prominences to toughen up the skin points. If you whiffed it long enough, the world around you would start to move in SLOOOOOOOW motion after a while.

There was an old M*A*S*H episode where another unit had a bowling team 'ringer' champ and they challenged 4077 to a bowling match. The 4077 guys put the blue in the 'ringer's' beers and he freaked out of course when he peed blue. The guys told him he had strained something so the guy played poorly thereafter.

[Christy1019, ASN, RN]

I remember tincture of benzoin - used to apply it to boney prominences to toughen up the skin points. If you whiffed it long enough, the world around you would start to move in SLOOOOOOOW motion after a while.

There was an old M*A*S*H episode where another unit had a bowling team 'ringer' champ and they challenged 4077 to a bowling match. The 4077 guys put the blue in the 'ringer's' beers and he freaked out of course when he peed blue. The guys told him he had strained something so the guy played poorly thereafter.

We still use tincture of benzoin in the ED for the diaphoretic pts to make the leads stick better!

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

Rubbing alcohol baths for fevers were a staple during my childhood in the Philippines. Were they ever popular in the US and elsewhere?

Damn, I still remember that cooling sensation but the fumes. The fumes!

They were popular in my household; US citizen here.

[adpiRN]

Is it true that women who were in preterm labor often had alcohol IV drips to stop labor?

Yes! I worked L&D and an older nurse told me this. Crazy!

She said she thought there was a correlation between those babies and alcoholism. Not sure if that was an actual fact or just a theory she had.