Reminiscing

[knockandhello]

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?

[MissJoRN, RN]

Never heard that the opening of the pillow case went away from the door, but the tag on the pillow always goes into the pillowcase first.

tvccrn

I was taught that, too and still always get it wrong... so I rip the tags off

[gr8rnpjt, RN]

Someone mentioned nursing school. I went to a diploma school of nursing in the late 70's. I remember we had curfew on weekdays, and on weekends, we were allowed to stay out a little later (midnight). If we were late, we were locked out till A.M.! We all had private rooms with a sink in the room, communal bathrooms. First year of nursing school, we still had housekeeping coming over from the hospital to dust and sweep out our rooms. After the first year, we were responsible to clean our own room. We had "date rooms" downstairs with a whole bunch of rules for us and our "dates" such as all feet on the floor at all times and a book-length between us adn our dates on the couch. All doors to stay open. No PDA. No one used the rooms, we stayed out in the car with our dates and parked nearby.

[Mimi2RN, ASN, RN]

We still get some glass bottles of IV fluid (when a baby is on D10W w/ lytes).

We have done ice lavage on babies.

I took the pencil and paper boards, and waited 6 weeks for results. Only one day in July? for the boards, did they do it 3 or 4 times a year?

I read the clysis instructions, it's different with a cat.....Hb holds the cat firmly, I uncap the needle (no safety needles, either), insert it into the cat between the shoulder blades. Hope it's in far enough, and doesn't come out a half inch away when the cat moves. Hold on to it while you turn it on with the roller clamp, and make sure it's infusing into the cat. Run in about 200 ml, turn it off, and let the irritated cat get down. We've had several cats who have needed that procedure, when their kidneys were failing.

Gloves were in the bathrooms at only one hospital of the three we used for clinicals, when I was in school. I graduated 20 years ago.

[mandaleigh]

Wow!! I've read about some of these things in books and some of them we were doing in class recently! As far as the toe pleat, we were shown how and why. I find that it makes the pt's feet more comfortable rather than being 'smooshed' to the side. It's the little things.....

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

i am in nursing school now. you know what amazes me? thinking about doing this without computers/internet. i mean how easy it is for me to pull up my school's website to get journal articles, or how easy it is to edit on a computer. i remember in 5th grade typing a report with a typewriter and hoe long it took. it would take me years to get anything done without this technology.

try doing this without a calculator! a resident told me the other day that she wanted to give "2 1/2 tablets of digoxin .25."

"you mean .375 mg?" i asked her.

"how did you do that," she asked in clear amazement.

"do what?"

"add that up in your head like that?"

when i started in the icu many years ago, we not only didn't have computers to calculate our i&o, drip rates, svrs, etc, we didn't even carry pocket calculators. pocket calculators hadn't even been invented yet! i had a friend who had an adding machine that would add, subtract, multiply and divide and we were all amazed, but the thing must've weighted 30 pounds!

we shot three syringes full of iced saline into our patient's cvp for a cardiac output, then calculated an average on a paper towel by long division. then we figured out the patient's systemic vascular resistance by hand. mean arterial pressure equals 1 systolic plus 2 diastolic divided by 3. svr = (map - cvp)/ cardiac output * 80. all by hand. plus, we calculated drip rates by hand. then dropped the hour's allottment of dopamine into a buretrol and counted drops to set the rate.

good old days????

[weezer123]

Yrs ago 1972-1975 In L&D, when the patients came in we immediately gave them SS enema, and shaved their total bottoms. The R.N or Doctor gave the patient a concoction of Demerol and scopolomine and something else it was 3 meds mixed and it was called twilight sleep. Or they got a trilene mask put around their wrists that they puffed when needed. We checked FHT with a stethescope that went over our heads. We timed contractions with our watch. Patients family were not allowed in L&D. Not even hubbys.we tied the pts to the delivery table with wrist restraints and belted them in the stirrups..awful!! we also saved all placentas in plastic bags tied them and froze them for some company to come and get them. God forbid what they did with them, make placenta shampoo or something. If we had several in labor at the same time and all were asleep it sounded like a zoo with puffing , screaming, the pts did not remember having their babies.Doctors slept in their little suite and had a shower and smoked at the desk with nurses..!!! The nursery was full with 20 to 30 babies at all times lucky if we had less than 20.. one R.N One LPN and oNE assistant. and all babies got fed, the resp. babies were taken care of by resp therapy and were in something called a bubble. Incubators had to be kept certain temps and the doctors put baby boys in total board /body restraint and preformed circumsisions.!!! With a cautery.. how barbaric.... I dont know how they do them now...In ortho. we had pts in steinman pins. thru femur and they stayed for 6wks till the femur healed. mostley teenagers. we had a bed called circo-electric bed for spinal injuries that looked like a big metal wheel. you could rotate pt. from back to stomach..Lamies stayed bedrest for 10days then got up slowly.. Meds were on med cart and rolled into hallway, most were not locked. There was everything !! lying around, darvocet in large bottle that we dispensed from, Phenergan on med room counter. Valium in pts med drawer, sleeping pills also, we did not steal drugs back in the day.!! nobody wanted them. Seems like only hard narc's were locked, like Demerol, Morphine, Dilaudid and more heavy stuff...and the med keys were on a red ribbon and worn around the neck..!!! Most med nurses were LPN's...they gave all meds /prn's and the R.N's made rounds with the doctors . took off orders and checked on pts. nursing assistants made beds and did most of baths.and that patient better have ice/water and cups at all times. we also did the fluff pillows/back rub and turning pts before lights out. (we did everything but kiss them goodnight) But once everything was completed you hardly heard form them the rest of the night. you checked on them with a flashlight. We wore white dresses/white shoes called clinics that would remind you of old saddle oxford shoes without the black.. and they were hard.. and un-comfortable but that was all nurses had back then. also the cafeteria was not open 11-7am so you better bring your lunch for the night..I still can not get used to the running shoes (different colors that nurses wear now. All nurses wore white. Caps were optional..and yes I remember glass IV bottles, but not metal bedpans. I remember the old gomco machines with suction. And Strict visiting hours!!!!

[nurse1972]

I've only been a nurse for 12 years and I know that our local hospital still uses metal basins, urinals and bedpans. I remember when universal usage of gloves came about and we used to recap our used syringes. We added to our IV bags, mini bags of phenergan and added insulin to TPN. I still use toe pleats when needed but usually pull the sheets out from under the mattress so I can inspect their feet. Apparently I'm one of the few nurses that do a full body- head to toe- assessment, and actually check their pedal pulses and look at their heels for breakdown.

It's interesting to look at some of the older hospitals that still have some of the remnants of days gone by (if they haven't remodeled yet). Elevated bathtubs in peds to give the children a bath. The dumb waiter elevator to get things to and from central supply. The hopper to clean the metal bedpan after each use. Only one or 2 bathrooms to a floor of 20 patients, they had to use the bedpan or walk down the hall to use the toilet. And I still insist that a ceramic mortar and pessel (sp?) is the best way to crush meds.

It's amazing how much has changed over the last 12 years, but if you have ever tried nursing in a prison setting it's very primitive almost like frontier nursing and you have to use all your "basic" skills you learned in nursing school.

[Retired R.N.]

Does anyone else remember the Wangensteen suction?

[fbmom]

:) :) :) Wow! What a trip down memory lane!! MOM for dedubs, sculteus binders, montgomery straps, glass bottles for suction, testing urines for sugar & protein,doing your own nebulizer/IPPB treatments,White uniforms and caps, and those white clinic shoes that had to be polished!! curfews , housemothers, 'pinkies' our housekeepers wore pink dress, hence the name, adding ice to the croup tent @ 3 am, counting IV drips with your watch [with second hand, not digital!] Younger nurses are horrified/amused when we tell them how it was in the 'good ol' days'

I would not trade my 'training' what it was called back then, I have an excellent basic nursing background and was not in shock when I started my first job and had more than 2 patients!!! Nursing today needs to get back to basics and increase clinical time, so these poor kids do not have that 'deer caught in headlights look' when they join the real world!!

[Debbie G]

How about putting vital signs into graphs- by hand. Sugar into decubitus ulcers (they were big back then) and decubs that went to the bone! I remember debriding a wound with a water pick and peroxide solution- that was real cutting edge! Smoking in the nurses lounge, and in the rooms with the patients. Beer and wine on dinner trays. Starting IVs without gloves, bedbaths and other care without gloves. No patient lift equipment. No fitted sheets- we tied the sheets onto the mattress. Used a folded sheet with a plastic sheet inside to make incontinence pads. Giving up your seat at the desk to a doctor (fat chance of that now!) But then again, getting bottles of wine from the doctors for Christmas. Being called Miss____ by the docs and the head nurse, first name only if they knew you.

And to think- at 42 years I am still younger than the average nurse (49)

[Otter]

I have been reading the replys to this post and I am really enjoyng them. Let the good times roll. Onward and forward. :balloons:

[SaraO'Hara]

Speaking of mitered corners and turning the open end of the pillowcase away from the door, does anyone else know what a toe pleat is??

I've tried explaining that to "younger" nurses and they look at me like I'm nuts.

Make a 2" wide pleat near the foot of the bed - leaves room for the patient's toes We've been taught how to make one, but it's not required.