BTSICURN

I forgot to mention: HIV/AIDS was an unknown. We started having male patients with inexplicable symptoms. Of course we weren't wearing gloves routinely unless it was to clean up someone's body fluids but we gave back rubs and skin care with our bare hands. No infusion pumps for all IVs, only meds like insulin, aminophylline, amphotericin, TPN ((with lipids on the side- separate bottle)- maintenance fluid ran on gravity and were time-taped based on the order and the drip rate on the tubing box. You had to do the math, run length of bandage tape along the side of the IV solution bag and mark out the expected hourly volume with the time. So if you hung a liter of NS at 10AM to run at 100 cc/hr you placed the tape along the side over the lines that measure out the 50 or 100 cc increments, drew a line where the 100cc increments would be all the way down the tape then labeled those lines with the time: 10a, 11a, etc. The number of drops per cc as determined by the drip factor on the box had to be counted. If the macrodrip factor was 10 gtts/cc, you calculated : 100 (cc) x 10 (gtt factor)/ 60 minutes = 16.6gtts/min Then you had to stand there, let the IV run and adjust the roller clamp so that it ran at 4-5ggt/15 seconds to verify the correct rate. Every hour you had to recheck the flow because it could change depending on the patient's activity or condition. Then do this for 6-10 patients. Thank goodness everything IV now is controlled by a pump. We gave ETOH 30 cc q 4 hours po to prevent DTs. I When I left that job and went to a trauma and burn ICU in another hospital we did primary nursing instead of team nursing. We had Haldol drips. The nurses determined the burn resuscitation and wound care.

I graduated from a 2-year ADN program in 1982. I was accepted into a nurse-internship program at a prominent teaching facility. Thus was a six-month program to ease new grads into the realities of day to day nursing care, clinically and in critical thinking. The nurses were very respected by the medical staff because we all were learning from each other and we were in a publicly-funded facility that primarily cared for the poor, the homeless, victims of violence and those afflicted by substance abuse. We needed each other because it was a sink or swim, nonstop environment. Nurses and doctors questioned each other to arrive at the best care possible for our patients. Often we found ourselves without basic supplies but together we improvised and saved lives with ingenuity and compassion. I left after two years because I couldn't live on the low pay and some nights I was the only licensed nurse on the unit. However, the spirit of the place stays with me even though I now work in a world renowned high-paying, well supplied and staffed facility.

The rehab facility hired you under fraudulent conditions. They lied to you! Turn around as fast as you can and get back to dialysis. I'm advising you as a nurse with 32 years of critical care experience. You owe nothing to the rehab.