Only Crusty Old Bats will remember..

[Pepper The Cat]

So, I really need a fun thread right now. We've done similar things before and it's always fun.

so, things Crusty Old Bats(COB) remember that new nurses today will not.

1. The clunk your uniform makes when you drop it in the laundry hamper and you realize you came home with the narcotic keys.

2. The splat the over full paper chart makes when you drop it on the floor. Papers everywhere. 15 mins getting everything back together.

3. The smell of the smoking lounge .

4. Nurse and Docs smoking at the Nsg Station.

5. Trying to match the colour of the urine in the test tube to determine the sugar level.

+1? +2? Which one?

OK my fellow COBs. Jump in!

[Susie2310]

Chart throwing by a doctor. Yes, right across the room.

Huge chart racks at the Nurses Station.

Paper charts and MARS; rolodex type Kardexes; being taught to check for Homan's sign in nursing school and doing this in clinicals; hanging an IV bag, counting the drips by your watch and using a roller clamp to adjust the rate; volutrols; latex gloves.

An atmosphere of pride and satisfaction in care given; daily morning bed baths using soap, water, and washcloths, and bed linen changes; making mitred corners with bed sheets; lots of experienced nurses; Heparin locks on peripheral IV's; hanging Aminophylline on ICU step-down in nursing school; Heparin infusions for stroke patients; huge binders full of paper policies and procedures.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Kardexes when done correctly were the bible of the patient's plan of care (both medical and nursing).

I miss those. Computer charting makes it very difficult to get a good picture of what is going on with a patient.

I started at age 40 and that was 19 years ago so there was no smoking in the hospital but I loved hearing the stories by the nurses who trained me of nurses and doctors smoking at the nurses' station and nurses smoking in the little tiny break room and the door opening and smoke billowing out.

As a hospice nurse, I've been taking care of those older nurses now and many have lung cancer.

I keep telling them they need to get together and write a book about our little local hospital when the nurses ran the hospital and the docs just went along for the ride. Such great stories!

[heron, ASN, RN]

Rotating tourniquets for pulmonary edema.

Endless iced saline lavage for ugi bleeds.

Paraldehyde given rectally for DTs - with a glass syringe because it melted the plastic ones.

Using those Byrd respirators to give IPPB treatments: kind of a bipap with meds added - including mucomyst (pew!).

q2hr sippy diet feedings.

Blenderised tube feedings: real food run thru a blender like baby food.

[JBudd, MSN]

Putting blue dye in the tube feeds so you would know if you were suctioning food from the lungs, also the green poop that it gave.

Painting decubs with betadine and using a blow dryer to dry it on.

Mixing your own 20 of K into your IV bottles, and putting a strip of tape down the side of the glass so you could make sure you weren't ahead or behind on your hourly rates.

Boards only offered twice a year, 5 separate exams (OB, psych, medical, etc.), took two days, had to have your diploma in hand to go into the exam hall; no make up until 6 months later, waited for your results in the mail for at least 6 weeks. If you didn't pass, couldn't work as a grad nurse, which means you promptly lost your job. My head nurse was waiting on the floor for me and my (passing!) letter the next day, as I got off the elevator.

[Davey Do]

[Davey Do]

being taught to check for Homan's sign in nursing school and doing this in clinicals

[Davey Do]

Boards only offered twice a year, 5 separate exams (OB, psych, medical, etc.), took two days, had to have your

#2 pencil(s) with good eraser(s) and possess the ability to coordinate vertically and horizontally!

[Davey Do]

Polishing my white Clinic shoes and scrubbing the laces

Other people's perception of a male nurse.

My younger brother drew this in 1984:

[Nobody00]

it's like my hospital is frozen in time.

2016:

Paper charts and MARS, even had glass IV bottles around last year – all switched to bags now.

RNs do 2-3 showers/bed baths every am shift, linen changes. And all the vitals.

Last names on ID badges covered by nursing” stickers that are used in narrative notes.

Medications in cupboard at the bedside.

Nurses draw up flushes every time.

And so many policy binders… so many…

Welcome to Australian hospital

[WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN]

Rotating tourniquets for pulmonary edema.

Endless iced saline lavage for ugi bleeds.

Paraldehyde given rectally for DTs - with a glass syringe because it melted the plastic ones.

Using those Byrd respirators to give IPPB treatments: kind of a bipap with meds added - including mucomyst (pew!).

q2hr sippy diet feedings.

Blenderised tube feedings: real food run thru a blender like baby food.

Oh gosh, mucomyst. Bleh.

[poppycat, ADN, BSN]

Other people's perception of a male nurse.

My younger brother drew this in 1984:

You'd think I would know better than to look at Davey Do's pictures when I'm drinking coffee. Now must go clean my iPad!

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

I almost forgot: In NICU, they put the IPPB bladder under the mattresses of preemies in incubators. It would inflate and remind them to breathe. Our first IV 'pumps' in NICU were kangaroos (like a feeding pump). Only steel butterflies- no angiocaths.

But the big thing was NO GLOVES for ANYTHING except sterile procedures/ surgeries.