i also remember Montgomery straps. New grads thought they were great. Especially after tegaderm ripped off tender skin. We older nurses still have a few tricks up our sleeves.
The last patient I had on a Clinitron was a young diabetic who was in renal failure and was broken down from waist to foot. She wanted to live so bad but had never cared for herself the way she should have. But we took good care of her. Unfortunately the Clinitron was her life, she never made it out of the thing. It is a terrible memory for me because all of the staff I worked with tried so hard for her. The bed made her life a little easier and our work a little easier but it was a hard case to deal with. I hope I never see another one, I am sure they went the way of the world.
Specializes in OR 35 years; crosstrained ER/ICU/PACU.
3-year Diploma nursing schools: wearing a stiff, starched blue uniform w/ a white bib; very spic+span white nursing shoes; wearing only a blue or white sweater OR ELSE demerits !!; respecting the doctors and travelling to each patient's room with each doctor; no hospital-based physicians; NO computers--paper charts w/ tin covers; nurses who gave Back Rubs; nurses who passed out breakfast, lunch and dinner trays; wearing a nursing CAP which would always fall off; wearing ONLY A DRESS uniform to work, no pants; working only in a hospital based facility--no case management, no working from home employment, no careers--you got married, had a child, stayed home until the child was ready for school + then returned to work !! And finally, retirement at last !!
My career to a "T", until I switched to the OR in the early 80's!! Retired in April - hallelujah!
I've used Dakin's for dressing changes and I've only been a nurse for 4 years. I had no idea that was an old school method untill I started working for a major hospital system two years ago ;-)
Specializes in OR 35 years; crosstrained ER/ICU/PACU.
We never had disposable supplies so had enema cans with hoses, glass syringes with reusable metal needles that we would have to sharpen to get rid of the burrs on the points. Also having an autoclave in the dirty utility room to autoclave supplies for a treatment. No air conditioning so we would place fans with ice in front of them and ice bags in patient armpits to fight fevers. Telemetry was a monitor at the end of the bed. We had wards at Mass.General Hosp of 12-15 beds and a Med room with bottles of prescription drugs to put your meds into a tray with doily cups in front of the slit for the Med card, different colors for each shift. We had clamps on IV tubing along with roller clamps and counted the drip rates. Also placing butterfly needles and armbands for IV's. We had to scrub the blood off dirty instruments in the utility sink and then autoclave them for the next patient. I miss giving back rubs to patients on the evening shift because of no time nowadays. Ah, I call them the "light dark ages!"
Wow! That's so far back in my career, I'm glad there are fellow colleagues here that remember all of this too!! Reusable EVERYTHING!! And in the OR we had all cloth packs: drapes, towels, gowns, caps.....no impervious material! How often did we take off a scrub gown, & have blood on the front of our scrub dresses (before we had scrub tops & bottoms!)?? Run to the locker room, change, & back for the next go-around! Don't forget having to thread suture needles (also reused & autoclaved)! Oh, times have changed in my 39 years as an RN!
1 RN 1 LPN 1 NA 29 pts I remember doing peritoneal dialysis on a med floor.& night shifts checked all orders on charts & reordered meds for each pt drawer. I loved nights but don't know why now. We sure didn't need busy work. This was late 70's
God, those darned caps having to be pinned! I have a spot on my scalp to this day. Having to wear a cap in LTC was for the birds. Some sweet confused resident cuffed off my cap one PM shift, taking Kleenex, Bobby pin AND hair!
OH yes, the nursing cap. My favorite mem is being the last person in the elevator. My back was toward the door. The elevator closed and caught my cap. Ripping it off my head. Bobby pins went flying and the cap stayed crushed in the door. The whole elevator broke out in laughter. I was mortified. Had to wait till the door open for the next floor to extract my cap.
OHNBJL
59 Posts
i also remember Montgomery straps. New grads thought they were great. Especially after tegaderm ripped off tender skin. We older nurses still have a few tricks up our sleeves.