The food tray cart, when someone went home before lunch (or was transferred or died), their lunch was for the taking!
IM Demerol and phenergen, pre and post op
Defined visiting hours
Totally forgot about meal trays!
Yes, if someone "expired", went home, the OR, was transferred or whatever their meal was up for grabs. Usually things like ice cream, Jello, soda and or a dessert went first. Those small containers of milk usually went into the fridge in break-room to be used for coffee.
OTOH remember trying to get a tray sent up from dietary when the kitchens were near closed/outside of official hours. This could be a late admission, transfer from the ER or a unit to the floor.
Remember Enfamil/formula and other fluids for infants came in those tiny glass bottles with nipples already attached. We used clean diapers or towels for burb cloths. You slung one over your shoulder to protect your uniform. Seasoned nurses (usually those who were moms themselves..) also put one on their laps in case of an "accident" by baby.
The bottle ruled in those days for both peds and maternity; do not ever recall a shortage or having to ask for help from other floors twice when extra hands were needed to feed babies.
They may have been COB elsewhere in their practice, but everyone melted when it came to babies/children.
"Chart throwing by a doctor. " Yes, I had a resident throw a chart at ME! I reported it to the evening supervisor, who politely told me that Dr's could "be like that sometimes." Arrrrgh...
All you long time LTC nurses out there...remember when darn near everybody was restrained? Learning to tie the restraints to the bed rail and the wheelchair was a skill that was tested on. Posey made all of ours and I wonder whatever happened to that company when restraints were phased out.
Ditto on the aforementioned color coded charting. Blue for days, green for afternoons and red for nights. Any discontinued orders were highlighted out in orange, any new orders were highlighted in yellow.
As for those new orders, it wasn't unusual to take a few days for a new order to get implemented while waiting for pharmacy to deliver the med. A "stat" order could be filled at the nearby hospital, but if it wasn't an immediate need we just waited. And those darn cards of meds in the med cart. It was a night shift duty to do "changeover" which meant taking out all the old cards for return to pharmacy and replacing them with the new ones once a month. That sucked up two nurses entire night doing that for the building.
Also the at the time technological marvel that was the Clinitron bed. I am short, climbing up on the sideboard to perform any kind of cares for the person in that monster of a bed was tricky.
The gloves [or lack of] was hard for me to adjust to. We never wore gloves unless we expected to be in contact with bodily fluids as it was "insulting" and the human touch was considered way more important than any kind of infection control. I hate to admit but I still can't get the knack of wearing gloves for blood draws. I seem to miss that vein the first time with them on so if it's a draw I know will be difficult I don't wear them.
The best thing about doing those bed baths is the excellent assessment opportunity-- skin mobility pain endurance mental status etc etc. plus, patients tending to reveal important social details when they had the nurse 1:1 for a dedicated block of time
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
"Chart throwing by a doctor. " Yes, I had a resident throw a chart at ME! I reported it to the evening supervisor, who politely told me that Dr's could "be like that sometimes." Arrrrgh...
Ah yes, the good old days. Folks complain about "bullying" now when their preceptor doesn't eat lunch with them.
I worked with an agency nurse (who was assigned to our unit 40 hours a week) named Millicent. Millicent was the head nurse of the OB unit back in the early 80s when an obstetrician punched a nurse for "talking back to him." Millicent stood up for her employee and called the police to report an assault. Both Millicent and the employee were fired and put on the "Do not rehire" list. The physician was given extra perks to soothe his hurt feelings after those "nasty, uppity women who don't know their place" were "unsupportive" of his practice of practicing MALpractice. (I forget now what the actual practice was, but he was later sued for malpractice over doing the same danged thing to another patient and had to pay out a huge settlement.).
My manager, who was friends with Millicent hired her through an agency under her maiden name to circumvent HR, and she worked 40 hours a week in our ICU. She was a great nurse, a wonderful colleague and told some fabulous stories. The physician was a well-known groper, anal sphincter and creep.
I saw a pulmonologists hit a nurse in the face with a metal chart. Nothing happened to him for hitting the nurse because he said he didn't mean to hit her, he was trying to hit the cardiac surgeon. The cardiac surgeon took offense to the attempted assault and had disciplinary action instituted through the pulmonologist's practice.
An inebriated nephrologist came in on call, wrote unintelligible orders for dialysis and took a swing at the dialysis nurse when she questioned the orders. It was a common practice. We just poured him coffee after coffee while we called his partners to rewrite the orders based on our assessments of the patient. A few years after I moved away, I happened to read an article in the newspaper that the nephrologist had been briefly jailed and disciplined by the hospital, his practice and the professional organization because he punched a cardiologist.
The young student nurse pictured above is a Miss. Susan Petty of Lebanon, Pennsylvania who arrived in NYC to attend Columbia Presbyterian Hospital school of nursing. With WWII raging on there was a push to recruit young women into nursing. The influx of students allowed graduate nurses (as they were then called) to be freed up for military duty.
Picture shown above drawing meds was taken at the "Babies Hospital of New York", which was at first a private institution but then became part of Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. It is now called the "Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital".
A whole series of pictures of both nurse trainees and other education of women for the war effort were taken by the same photographer and now reside in the Library of Congress. Am guessing these were "PR" images distributed to newspapers, magazines and so forth to drum up the war effort.
Susan Petty O'LAUGHLIN sadly passed away in 2014 but lead a rich and rewarding life it seems. I for one thank her for her service to not only the nursing profession but her country.
Started with the uniform and cap which one recognized (I would, wouldn't I?), as belonging to the old Columbia Presbyterian Hospital school of nursing here in NYC.
Columbia merged their school with the university and long since closed their much admired and respected undergraduate program. Last time one checked even their dual BSN/MSN degree is gone and they now focus entirely on post graduate nursing degrees.
NutmeggeRN, BSN
2 Articles; 4,743 Posts
Oh my...some pretty funny stuff here!!!!
My faves...
White uniforms, stockings and shoes
Admission the night before surgery
The food tray cart, when someone went home before lunch (or was transferred or died), their lunch was for the taking!
IM Demerol and phenergen, pre and post op
Defined visiting hours