Ahhh, giving Demerol. And giving Phenergan IV. We really don't do either anymore. (Occasional Demerol for postop shivering but nothing else.)
When I was a baby nurse 15 years ago I was on a general surgery unit and we gave 100 Demerol/25-50 Phenergan in the same syringe, man...we gave that out like it was water! And the only time we ever used an IV pump was for blood. Everything else? Time tape.
This! I don't know how many Demerol 75/Phenergan 25 cocktails I drew up every week back in the day.
Anyone remember administering Carafate slurries? Huge tablet, mix in a little water, stir until it dissolves and then it's bottoms up! Yuck!
Back in the early '90s I worked in an urban hospital in a rough part of town. We always knew the patients who were probably dealing drugs because they carried pagers. Cell phone? What's that?
Horrible racket carts loaded with glass IV bottles made as they were being transported.
AM, post BM care with real terry washcloths and those tiny bars of Ivory soap.
Wheeling BP machines around from patient to patient.
TPR charts hung on end of each bed
Those little blue (oral) and red (anal) boxes with mercury thermometers and those little plastic sheaths.
Making beds using a draw sheet that had a rubber pad between the layers (pre Chux days).
AM care where nearly everyone got something ranging from full bed bath to going to the showers/tubs. While they were up and out of the bed it was made with two flat sheets (mitered corners), a spread and topped off with a blanket. If pt. was going off to the OR you made up a "post anesthesia" bed.
Water pitchers being emptied and turned upside down for NPO patients.
Banana IV bags with tapes.
Open wards with beds lined up on either side and a nurses "station" being a desk at one end of the room.
Folding cloth diapers that just came up from the laundry.
Filing out lab forms on those triple copied forms then running them thorough that "credit card machine" (cannot recall what was called) that you inserted a "card" that had the patient's name and other information.
Vistaril & Atropine IM administered to pre-op patients.
Hand cranked beds, especially in a four bed room (all males) where if you weren't careful gave a show for the guys.
Running metal or enameled porcelain bed pans under hot water during cold times of year before giving to patient. OTOH! *LOL*
Realizing you have a big nasty ladder (run) in your nylons and not only don't you have a spare, but your by the book head nurse or supervisor is on the prowl.
Finally if you learned to draw meds like this and are familiar with med rooms of the same.....
You can still find Argo and Faultless boxed starch out there, along with Linit and Stayflo liquid. The latter is probably easier to find than the former.
Check eBay as well since there always seems to be someone selling boxes of starch (old and new) there as well.
Years ago I starched a cap and uniform pinafore for a friend who needed it for a school (college) play. Think kind of over did it though. The cap was hard as two day old biscuits, and the apron stood up by itself. *LOL*
Specializes in Family Medicine, Tele/Cardiac, Camp.
What a fun thread! I'm not really crusty yet, but I have had to calculate drip rates among other things.
And those dang narc keys!
I once accidentally left work one morning (my 3rd night in a row) with the narc keys. Nearly a 90 minute ride home on public transportation, walked through my door, emptied my pockets, nearly started crying, took a deep breath, turned right around, and back out I went...
No smart phones, I Pods, or online resources for drug information, etc. You had to use books - drug guides/reference books.
Keeping a small piece of paper in your pocket with the number of drops/min for different IV tubing calibrations for ease of counting drops when regulating an IV with a roller clamp.
DoGoodThenGo: It was a joke! I have no "uniforms!" I'm male, wear street clothes! I guess I could starch my undergarments, though... (another joke).
Years ago (well until the 1960's or 1950's) when housewives or laundries pretty much starched everything you'd refer to a guy who was uptight as "having starch in his shorts". *Shorts* being his boxers/underpants.
Similarly a housewife that wanted to get at her husband would "accidentally" starch his shorts on laundry day.
In the nursing home, we used cloth diapers. After a code brown, we had to rinse the diapers - along with the cloth washrags - in the hopper in the dirty utility.
Doing urine clinitest by adding the tablet to a test tube of urine (It got boiling hot!) and comparing the colors to check for sugar; I was amazed to hear that they had clinitest strips in the hospital where they would just dip, time, and compare colors.
We had to learn how to rate adjust with the roller clamp in school (graduated in 2014). We were told that during Katrina people didn't know how to adjust rates on IVs because the roller clamp method wasn't being taught anymore. I don't know about other schools but ours teaches it.
It really is a shame calculating drip rates and or "manual" IVs are going by the way side at so many schools. Suppose the argument could be made that "everyone" has electronic pumps now, but is that universally true?
Leaving aside pumps are only as good as they are programmed, what happens when you cannot lay hands upon one or there is a massive power outage?
westieluv
948 Posts
This! I don't know how many Demerol 75/Phenergan 25 cocktails I drew up every week back in the day.
Anyone remember administering Carafate slurries? Huge tablet, mix in a little water, stir until it dissolves and then it's bottoms up! Yuck!
Back in the early '90s I worked in an urban hospital in a rough part of town. We always knew the patients who were probably dealing drugs because they carried pagers. Cell phone? What's that?