Reminiscing

TazziRN, RN · Jun 12, 2006

Let's see, what else........all cardiac pts automatically got IV's of D5W, even if diabetic, to prevent fluid overload. I remember when thrombolytic therapy was new and considered the wonder drug for MI's. I, too, remember the "no gloves" attitude to spare pts' feelings. What about when lap appy's and lap choles were new?

kids · Jun 12, 2006

I remember:

Nursing staff being allowed to smoke in the nurses stations, other departments had to use the break room.

A horrible new bug named MRSA that was so rare and virulent that SNFs wouldn't admit (or readmit) a patient unless they had an isolation room. And then the patient stayed in isolation (sometimes for months) until they had negative sputum and nasal swabs x3.

Laminectomy patients were log rolled for 7-10 days post-op and stayed in the hospital for as much as 2 weeks.

Midwest4me · Jun 12, 2006

How about heat lamps for decubitus care? I remember positioning pt on their side, and holding the skin folds up and out of the way with tape attached to the side rails, and painting the decubitus ulcer with MOM.

OH YES I remember that well---that was going to be my contribution! You beat me to it! LOL! IT certainly worked to heal those decubiti too! And yes--I wore the nursing cap--this was only 21 years ago---I remember thinking "what a shame" when the caps were phased out--it didn't take me long to be glad they were).

ERERER · Jun 12, 2006

ha ha ha, these would be funny if my alzheimers would allow me to remember!!

remember starting IV's with butterfly needles, the metal needle stays in the patient? putting tape on iv bottles to time them? (no iv pumps back then). back pain pts were put in lumbar or bucks traction and stayed in bed forever.

if a doctor walked into the unit, you had to get up out of your chair.

those little medication cards..... one color for qd, bid, tid, etc. then you put all your meds out on a tray with the little cards stuck in there too. god forbid you dump over that tray. we used to compare who had the biggest stack of little cards.....

we smoked at the nurses station.

clysis? anyone remember this? great trivia question, i think they still do this at vet clinics

kids · Jun 13, 2006

I definitely remember clysis, loved it for giving a little fluid boost to little old ladies who were being puny. It was also a great (and probably more humane) alternative to IVs when an elderly patient was fading away and the family felt the need to do *something* because their PO intake was zilch.

PANurseRN1 · Jun 13, 2006

Talking the other day at work about how much things have changed since our training days in the 60s and 70s.The young ones couldnt believe that there were designated areas for different years of training in the meal rooms.We werent allowed to enter a lift before our senior nurses or doctors.I can remember that if someone died on your shift you were responsible for that person till they had been removed to the morgue.Had to stay back once 2 hours after my shift ended at 11pmbecause of that and still had to start at 6 in the morning.Split shifts were normal.The opening of pillow cases had to face away from the doorway.(still do that out of habit).Testing urine using a bunsen burner.What do others remember?

LOL! I went to school in the early 80s, and the pillowcase thing was hammered into us. I still do that, even at home.

santhony44, MSN, RN, NP · Jun 13, 2006

Yes- glass suction bottles, long incisions and NG tubes for gallbladders ( God bless whoever invented laparoscopy!), glass thermometers, Clinitest tablets, CT and MRI being brand new, logrolling the laminectomy patients, the tape on the IV bottles to time them (I'd forgotten that!), the old IV pumps that only pumped with no sensor- if you forgot the line clamped off below the pump, it would keep going and the tubing would stretch and stretch until it burst; and, definitely, caps as a student. Does anyone else remember the little plastic carrying cases, because God forbid you wear the cap outside the hospital! :nurse: :nurse: :nurse:

LauraF, RN, ASN, CNA, LPN, RN · Jun 13, 2006

My cap is put safely back into it's carrying case. Although the plastic carrying case that was clear, is now yellowing and the plastic is cracked. Did not age well at all. I always had a hard time finding the white hair pins too.

weetziebat · Jun 13, 2006

I trained at a hospital that had been built in 1892. We had 30 bed wards, with only one bathroom. Consequently used lots of metal bedpans. We thought it was great when we could use the steam heater to take the chill off them.

Needless to say no one had telephones, so couldn't make or receive calls. No air conditioning and the heating was very sporadic in the old radiators.

Anyone else remember the sippy diets for ulcer patients? They got 30cc's of Half & Half every hour, and that was it.

Making Montgomery straps to keep those incisions together. I loved the smell of tincture of benzoin.

Do they still insist you have an enema before childbirth? There you are in labor getting an enema. Yuck!

Before pantsuits came on the scene, we all wore white nurses dresses. Our local paper did a front page article showing the new style pantsuits.

We had to wear white stockings with seams, and heaven help you if the seams were crooked!

The RN's sat at the desk, answering the phones, talking to, and making rounds with the doctors. And making assignments. The LPN's did the bedside care, and the aides did bed baths, vitals and often were given full assignments (of easier patients). There was no training for the aides. One day you worked at the grocery store and the next you were caring for patients.

In 1958, when my dad had an MI he spent one month in the hospital, on strict bedrest, not allowed to feed himself or shave. Gotta rest that heart!

No paper tape back then. We used good ole adhesive tape. Ouch!!

And marking the glass IV bottles with permanent markers. The hassle of only having the roller clamp to adjust the speed, and having to keep running in to make sure it was dripping right. Standing there with your watch counting drops.

Working in a nursing home, where it was standard practice to have all the residents in the dementia unit tied into their wheelchairs in posey restraints. Then they were medicated with Haldol and you'd watch puddles of urine collect under the wheelchairs.

Anyone remember when Geraldo Rivera exposed this type of treatment in WillowBrook Hospital in New York? Everyone was so rightly horrified. So many children housed like animals. It was awful.

Yes, I remember having to stand when the doctors came into the nursing station, and they stayed forever. There we were standing up, balancing charts against our thighs as we tried to chart. Then the RN would make rounds, rolling the metal chart holder from bed to bed so the doc could make his notes right there.

All our patients had to be offered a backrub every evening, and we had no physical or respiratory therapy, so we had to do the range of motion exercises and do the 'pulmonary toilette' by cupping and vibrating on our patient's backs.

Last one. After a delivery, we nurses were the ones who had to clean the delivery room. Mopping up blood on our hands and knees. Sheesh.....

Jamesdotter · Jun 13, 2006

I remember a lot of these things, too. How about washing, mending and resterilizing latex gloves? Packing and sterilizing our own surgery and delivery linen packs. Someone has already mentioned sharpening and resterilizing the needles with (glass) syringes. Rotating cuffs for CHF. Rubber tubing for IVs. And before there was clinitest there was Benedict's solution (5 cc's soln, 8-10 gts urine, boil vigorously). Testing for ketones with a supersaturated solution of urine and some kind of crystals (can't remember what). Then carefully floating another solution (can't remember that one either) on the top of the first solution. If positive it turned a really lovely shade of purple!

By the time clinitest got to our institution it had a chemical in it that did the boiling for us. You can imagine how thrilled we were to get the tablets for ketone testing.

medsurgnurse, RN · Jun 13, 2006

Thanks for bringing back old memories. I have a few. I remember the pillowcases open faced to the window, seams down on the sheets and blankets. How about counting needle hubs? If you were missing one you were written up at the end of the shift. I had an extra one that I kept in my purse for many years as a good luck charm. Recently a new grad looked at me funny when I suggested that we get a manual BP for the patient. She told me she knew how to use them but she was really trained on electronic cuffs. I remember dip sticks for urine testing. How about paper charting? Glass IV bottles? Writing care plans? Better staffing and better ratios? How about working with doctors who treated you better and didn't spend their whole day worrying about being sued? I could go on.Thanks again.

I just graduated in 1997 and we had to do manual BP during clinical. If we got caught using the machine that would count as failing grade for clinical for that day. I can't believe any school would graduated anybody who didn't know how to take a blood pressure.

Rnandsoccermom · Jun 13, 2006

Cutting needles before you put them into the needle box AFTER you walked out into the hallway with them to the med cart.

Poking fingers with bare needles for accu checks and reading the strips against the colors on the bottle for the glucose level.

I almost forgot about Bentley bottles!

Saline lavaging for GI bleeds.

Boy do I feel old!