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!

[Allgood2016, LPN, LVN]

My nurses cap getting caught on the apparatus on orthopedic beds.

Uniform pants ("whites") inappropriate for work. Uniform dresses only.

Isolation gowns were surgical gowws, made of heavy cloth; and we're HOT. Come out of isolation drenched in sweat.

Isolation patients/rooms meant hair covered, masks; gowns (must be long enough to reach tops of shoes) ; shoes covered; and gloves (first job did not have disposable gloves).

Sterilizing bed pans and urinals every 24 hours (night shift; each area had a dishwasher type sterilizer in the dirty utility room). Disposable ones were for isolation rooms only.

Non-disposable gloves that went into a special bag for central supply to bed cleaned daily.

And, my list could go on and on. I graduated nursing school in 1975.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Reusable surgical drapes and gowns made of linen. Having to patch the holes.

And I'm not even that crusty! My facility had reusable linen surgical gowns for the first 3 years I worked there. They had stopped using the linen drapes the year before I started.

[JBudd, MSN]

Got so tired of chasing narc keys, we had two sets, that I made brightly colored, corded lanyards; long enough to go around your neck and fit into your white nursing tunic pockets, so as not to hit the pt when you leaned over. What with having two sets, the second could get carried off despite narc count getting done. Walked into a local bar near the hosp where many went after a 3-11, and the evening supervisor just looked at me and smilingly said "narc keys?". That dang lanyard was still around my neck.

[JBudd, MSN]

Hand written time sheets. No one was ever late.

Having to pay to have the TV turned on in your room. Except on Bronco Sundays; the auxillary turned on everyone's TV for that! and off again in the evening.

[westieluv]

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?

[SororAKS, ADN, RN]

Cans/bottles of beer with patients' names and an occasional bottle of scotch with the same in the med rooms.

[Libby1987]

Candy strippers? Really?

I did say it was pretty awesome..

[DoGoodThenGo]

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.....

[Yosemite, RN, ASN, EMT-I]

Starch! I miss starch!

[WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN]

I still starch some of my uniforms.

[DoGoodThenGo]

Starch! I miss starch!

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*

[SnowShoeRN]

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...

Ugh.